Major Global Pharma Company Has Agreed To Market A Medical Cannabis Product

An Israeli’s Quest To Mainstream Medical Marijuana

For Perry Davidson the recent deal signed with pharmaceutical giant Teva to distribute his medical marijuana inhaler is the culmination of his decade-long goal to mainstream medical cannabis treatments. The accord marks the first time that a major global pharma company has agreed to market a medical cannabis product.

“I wanted to get rid of the ‘bad boy’ reputation that marijuana has,” Davidson, an Israeli medical marijuana activist who became CEO of medical startup Syqe Medical, told Channel 2 on Friday. In his eyes, medical cannabis was being held back because there was no way to accurately dispense the exact amounts of the drug a patient needed. So he designed and patented his inhaler, which he says is the world’s first that enables the precise delivery of botanicals at the level of safety and precision of conventional drugs.

The Deal

Last month Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Syqe signed a distribution and cooperation agreement to market medical cannabis in an inhaler.

“When a major pharmaceutical company puts its reputation behind it, it gives it a legitimacy in the eyes of doctors, patients, scientists and the whole world,” said Davidson.

The pursuit of respectability has not changed Davidson, who still wears a trademark Mohawk hair cut and jeans. But it has affected the design of the inhaler, which was made to look as “boring as possible,” said Davidson.

“We call it the ‘Trojan Horse,’ we want it to go into the health system without anyone raising a an eyebrow,” he said in the TV interview.

From: Times of Isreal