Sandoz moves into the pot market
Partnership for co-branded products, R&D gives B.C. firm stamp of legitimacy
Sandoz Canada Inc. is partnering with B.C. cannabis company Tilray to develop and distribute medical marijuana products, signalling the first deal between a major pharmaceutical company and a Canadian cannabis producer.
The companies announced Sunday that they’ve signed a binding letter of intent to form a “strategic partnership.” This will see cobranded products, joint research and development, and Sandoz Canada’s sales team helping to get non-smokable Tilray products into pharmacies and hospitals across the country, pending regulatory approval.
Sandoz Canada is a branch of Sandoz International GmbH, the generics-focused wing of Novartis International AG, the fourth largest pharmaceutical company in the world by revenue.
Nanaimo, B.C.-based Tilray, a private company owned by Seattle cannabis investment firm Privateer Holdings, has considerable experience in the regulated cannabis space. It was the 10th company to secure an Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations license from Health Canada, back in 2014, and the first company to ship medical cannabis into the European Union legally.
The financial details of the deal have not been released, although a Tilray spokesperson confirmed Sandoz has not taken a financial stake in Tilray. Nonetheless, the partnership marks a significant development in the medical marijuana market, suggesting that global pharmaceutical players are taking seriously the opportunities and disruptive potential of cannabisbased medicine.
“We are thrilled to form a strategic alliance with Tilray to strengthen our portfolio,” said Michel Robidoux, president and general manager of Sandoz Canada, in a written statement. “We are committed to making every reasonable effort to respond to patients’ medical needs by increasing the number of high-quality, adequately dosed non-smokable, non-combustible medical cannabis products at the disposal of doctors.”
For Tilray, the partnership confers a stamp of legitimacy at time when doctors are still reticent to prescribe marijuana and the role of pharmacies in Canada’s medical marijuana distribution scheme remains up in the air.
“To have the Sandoz logo cobranded on some of our products will help establish trust with patients and pharmacists and physicians who are used to seeing that Sandoz brand on products that they consume and trust,” said Tilray chief executive Brendan Kennedy.
The deal focuses on non-combustible products, which, to begin with in 2018, will include oils and gel caps. Longer term, products could include things like sprays, creams and patches, if they become legal.
“They know how to manufacture all different form factors that we are asked about regularly. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a patch or a gel cap, (Sandoz) is a company that produces, and has access to manufacturers that know how to manufacture, every different form factor of medicine,” said Kennedy.
How the co-branded products will actually get to patients remains to be seen. Currently, all legal medical marijuana has to be shipped from licensed producers to patients, although some pharmacies are pushing to have a stake in that process, including in-store sales.
Shoppers Drug Mart, for example, has applied for an ACMPR license, and has signed supply deals with four cannabis producers, including Tilray.
Kennedy, for his part, said he’s confident that Canadian pharmacies will be allowed to sell Tilray products within a year.
In-store distribution, however, is far from a sure thing, given disagreement between different provincial colleges of pharmacists. Some colleges of pharmacists, as in B.C. and Quebec, have argued for over-the-counter distribution of cannabis. But others, as in Alberta, have argued that pharmacies should not sell cannabis products until they receive Drug Identification Numbers following more robust scientific testing.
Powerful drug reps from traditional pharmaceutical companies could start to shift the conversation in the medical community. Perhaps more importantly, partnerships like the one between Tilray and Sandoz Canada could mean more money for medical research.
Tilray is already involved in six clinical trials, including one at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto looking at pediatric epilepsy and one at the University of British Columbia looking at post traumatic stress disorder, said Kennedy.
“If you look at the top conditions and symptoms from the Tilray patient survey we do on an annual basis, chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety top the list. But epilepsy, MS, HIV and cancer are also big patient populations,” said Kennedy. “The range of the conditions they’re researching is a little bit mind boggling.”