MJBizMag May-June 2021 - 62

WELLNESS OUTLOOK
BRINGING
T
he key to developing effective
medical and wellness products
for cannabis consumers begins
with understanding what patients want
and expect-and what the ever-growing
universe of plant-based medicines
can deliver.
When it comes to patients who prefer
flower-and, to a lesser degree, concentrates
and vapes-it's understood
that different batches will have different
potencies. Because of this, patients will
monitor their consumption based on the
effect they are feeling rather than how
much THC they've consumed.
" Flower doesn't require much product
development. It's more about various
strains and how people respond to
them, " said Chris Diorio, director of
research and development at Illinoisbased
PharmaCann, a multistate
operator he joined in 2017 after more
than 20 years developing drugs at
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
But when it comes to products such
as pills, capsules and edibles, there is no
room for variability.
" The intent is to design and formulate
products that look like medicine and perform
like medicine. That means precision
dosing, repeatability, uniformity from dose
to dose, content uniformity of a capsule or
tablet from the beginning of the batch to
the end of the batch, " Diorio said.
Another question PharmaCann
scientists ask when developing medically
minded products is: What kind of
products bring value to patients?
Pills and capsules offer less room for variability
than cannabis flower. Courtesy Photo
Consider edibles. Most edibles
products have onset times that range
from 45 minutes to two hours, a
variability too great for many people
used to medicines such as aspirin taking
effect in 30 minutes or less. Durations are
also unpredictable, while bioavailability
of cannabinoids delivered through
edibles is far less than those delivered
through combustion, Diorio said.
To deal with those shortcomings, Diorio
developed capsules using a technique
he imported from Pfizer: a self-emulsifying
drug-delivery system, or SEDDS.
According to Diorio, scientists
take very fat soluble or lipophilic
compounds, which are widespread in the
pharmaceutical industry but no different
than cannabis oil, and formulate them so
that, when consumed, they are absorbed
62 Marijuana Business Magazine | May-June 2021
BY OMAR SACIRBEY
BIG PHARMA
EXPERTISE TO CANNABIS
in the stomach, Diorio said. The process
offers patients a faster onset, greater
bioavailability and a longer duration,
he added.
" In designing the products, it's all
about what's really the value add, " Diorio
said. " These more sophisticated forms,
for all intents and purposes, are identical
to the types of products I developed
while I was at Pfizer. They're very much
shaped the same way. "
He added: " By using those
technologies, we're not trying to strip
away the beauty of this plant but trying
to incorporate all the benefits of that
plant into a product that appears more
medical for those folks who perhaps were
afraid of cannabis. "
Among the benefits for marijuana
companies: These products can be
easily scaled and mass-produced with
consistency.
" The patients come to know exactly
what to expect when they consume it.
And those types of products you can
manufacture at a very large scale, and
for a lower cost, because the existing
technology that is used to fill capsules
and pressed tablets is well established, "
Diorio said. " You can drive the cost
down for the patient. "
Omar Sacirbey is a reporter for
Marijuana Business Magazine.
You can reach him at
omar.sacirbey@mjbizdaily.com.
MJBizMag May-June 2021

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