Roby article on linkedin

Roby has posted an article on LinkedIn post Feb 7 -

Medical Cannabis, where is it going?

I would like to take the next few minutes of your time to guide you through MGC’s vision of what this industry should become, and then, what our place is in within that, as a company and as pioneers.The future of cannabis is medicine, we see it in the recent statement of the WHO and in the global shift in policy making. And as medicine, it is shifting into becoming a Standardized, Effective, Compliant and Affordable product…in one word: a Phytomedicine.

In the Therapeutic world, we find two routes of treatment: the more holistic and natural which is recognized as Phototherapeutic, ie a preparation of active ingredients in their natural form using all the compounds combined into one product, giving the known and unknown the chance to work together and (in the Cannabis world this is recognized as the Entourage Effect). On the other side we have pure standardized medicine, mostly as singular active ingredient (in some cases even in Synthetic form), all the way through to standardized, compliant poisons. The emerging Cannabis world and, particularly, in the world of Cannabis for medical uses, we are given the ability to fulfill MGC’s vision, and to find the silver lining of the intersection of these two worlds into Phytomedicines.
By compounding more than one standardized Natural Active Ingredients, we are creating a controlled “Small” Entourage Effect, which can meet the regulatory requirement of controlled standardized medicine alongside doing the work of several natural compounds, all in harmony within our body generating a better effect…in one word: a Phytomedicine So, how do we get there?

In 2015, we established MGC Pharma, a bio-Pharma company which has been listed on the Australian Stock exchange since 2016 and is most active in Europe, with a clear Seed to Pharma strategy. The understanding of the value of Phytocannabinoids in our system, require us to be familiar with and to hold our own grasp on product chain from the seed though growing and harvesting until they s become raw materials through extraction and isolation to become different Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, ending up in a certified compounding facility to become a final dosed form, a Phytomedicine.

Furthermore, to achieve access for new medicines to market we need to create affordable medications, meaning a cost-effective value chain for our product, from raw material through to final packing, and especially, in the long-term…. high bioavailability, lowering our costs and patients costs throughout the supply chain. Our vision is to become a global leader in Phytomedicines and to build a global supply chain focused on creating final and affordable medicinal products, allowing us to improve the lives of patients.

The road to medicine must go through clinical studies, which create a critical point of distinction for our industry: clinical and patient treatment experience alongside practitioners observations, which are the key starting points of the Phytomedicine. This, coupled with a robust R&D platform, preferably a globally operated one with leading universities, in order to achieve maximum exposure and data collection. Most Cannabis companies will throw around this number - 100B$, which represents the potential Global Cannabis market by 2028. At MGC, however, we see our market as the entire pharma market, which we are intending on taking a share of, making our goal much larger than those of other companies.

From our founding, we saw MGC’s future in the Pharma industry, and as such, we helped to build connections between Pharma distributers to the Cannabis industry. Our first relationship started with our European partner and industry leader in the un-license medicines and unique medicines, LENIS, which has expanded into affiliations with recognized pharma distributors in each of our territories, such as AM Mangion and HL Pharma.We believe in Responsible and Affordable Phyto medications – but what does that mean in practice?Research - the foundation of any industry, in particular for Cannabis – we need to regain 100 missing years of investigation or even regular monitored usage of these compounds - research is a critical step for the industry, and to bring the best minds and best platforms to push as deep and accurate as possible research into the industry globally.Education - both for doctors and for patients, to ensure that in all their future interactions with Phytomedicines they will have all the tools to make the right decision.

Patient access - when patients can’t get access, everything we are doing is useless. By partnering with patient groups and using new technologies we are ensuring that patients receive the benefits of all - education and research.How do we do it?From the beginning one of our focal points was connecting Academia and Industry, which we saw as crucial for creating meaningful breakthrough relations with leading academic partners, leading to high levels of R&D. We believe that without R&D the industry will not grow, for this reason in every geography we entered we find the best partners for advancing the agenda of widespread phytocannabinoid research at the highest levels.We began this process with RMIT in Australia and created a globally unique R&D partnership, giving MGC access to over 100m$ worth of research tools via RMIT’s Boonadura Campus. In Slovenia we are in collaborations with the National Institute of Biology and Ljubljana University, both in Clinical and Botanical research with the overall goal of achieving affordable Phytomedications. We are involved in similar activities in Malta, The Czech Republic and Israel, and are always more than happy explore more research collaborations in every territory we enter.

To focus on our fast track attitude regarding research and industry development, I would like briefly touch on one of my favorite projects, which combines industry and academia and was a first time ever collaboration of its type. MGC has engaged with both RMIT and Hebrew University to bring together the creativity of the startup mentality, and their combined academic resources under one roof, welcoming all industry and academia to collaborate globally and to generate the kind of ideas that will cause revolutions in the industry. This is a collaborative international Cannabis Hub (appropriately called CannaHub International) which will guide ideas from Hackathon to Accelerator all the way through to commercialization with the support of leading academia and industry infrastructures.

We believe education is everything, if we don’t build the next generation of knowledge and experience and skilled workers, we will miss the opportunity to build the dynamic and exiting industry we believe we are creating. With the correct educational tools, implemented at an early enough stage, we will create the next generation of doctors and decision makers who will be familiar with Cannabis and Phytomedicines and their myriad therapeutic benefits.

Last but not least, Products. MGC’s Phytomedicine pipeline was based on several factors, the first of which is where we can demonstrate the biggest impact to improve patient’s quality of life, and the second - our scientific advisors experiences in life, knowledge and direction treating thousands of patients over time.

We hope to see our vision fulfilled over the coming years and to see a global change in patients’ treatment and global attitude to these important and impactful compounds…the shift to phytomedicines is here, and we want all of you to be a part of it.