Father of cannabis research plans a new revolution nearly 60 years later

• Author: IDAN ZONSHINE
• Date: 30 March 2021
• Published date: 30 March 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

These discoveries were foundational to the world of cannabis-related medical research, leading many to nickname him the "godfather" and even the "father" of cannabis research.

His latest research on cannabis-derived acids, however, seems to have taken cannabis research into a completely new phase – one which could finally bridge the funding gap between the potential for medical cannabis treatment and the funding that companies are willing to invest in its research and development.

These days, Mechoulam leads the medical team for EPM, which plans to register in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange toward the third or fourth quarters of 2021.

The Jerusalem Post sat down for an interview last week with EPM's CEO, Israeli entrepreneur Reshef Swisa – who teamed up with the scientist 50 years his senior to found EPM in 2017 – and with its chairman, veteran British pharmaceutical businessman Julian Gangolli, who joined the company in 2019, in order to find out what exactly cannabis acids are, and what their impact could be on the worldwide medical cannabis market.

"When you look at a cannabis field, none of the plants actually contain THC or CBD or any cannabinoids. All cannabinoids will appear on a plant only after that plant is dead," Swisa told the Post. "You learn that there is a big difference between the compound you find on a plant when it's alive and the compound you'll find when it's dead."

SWISA SAID that cannabis acids are an exciting avenue for new research because, "while the entire industry is working on the compounds that decarboxylate from the plant after it starts drying up, we were more interested in looking into what happens on the plant itself."

He said that for pharmaceutical companies to show an interest in investing in a new drug, they need it to be either more potent, cost-effective, or have fewer side effects than the currently approved treatments. "It must be better than what they have now," he said.

He said that you must also be able to patent your drug, telling the Post: "that may be the main reason that a lot of pharmaceutical companies aren't looking at cannabis. You can't patent the formula for a natural molecule."

Swisa said that while the potency of cannabis acids is higher than its cannabinoid counterparts, "the cannabis acids are very unstable, meaning they break apart into cannabinoids very easily. If you tried to take them from the plant or tried to consume them, the heat of your body would break them down and they would...