While medical marijuana remains illegal in the eyes of the United States government, one pharmaceutical company claims it has developed a cannabis-based chewing gum that will have the support of the Federal Drug Administration within the next few years.
Axim Biotechnologies, which has offices in New York and the Netherlands, and has already manufactured a high-CBD gum called CanChew, recently told in-PharmaTechnologist.com that they are in the process of conducting clinical trials on a new product called MedChew, a THC chewing gum, for patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Irritable Bowel Disease and Crohn’s Disease.
Although the concept of marijuana-infused gum does not sound like a new discovery, Axim says their product is different because it is time released so that the distribution of cannabinoids to the gastrointestinal tract happens gradually over a period of around thirty minutes — a process, the company claims, is similar to the technology behind nicotine gum.
In addition to developing chewable cannabis products, the company also has its own team of growers that will cultivate all of the marijuana needed for the manufacturing process. Axim recently purchased over an acre of land in the Netherlands where they will establish a grow operation to produce its line of neutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.
“We get the raw materials from Bedrocan (a marijuana grow facility overseen by the Dutch Ministry of Health) as they have a GMP agricultural facility so the quality is highly qualified to make pharma products,” said Axim CEO, Lekhram Changoer.
The company says it plans to launch MedChew sometime in 2017, which will be just shortly after the Big Pharma of Marijuana, GW Pharmaceuticals is expected to release several of their cannabis products in America. Considering this trend, there is some concern that the US government is simply profiting from a pharmaceutical variation of legalized medical marijuana without being forced to budge on the issue of prohibition.
Some advocates anticipate the coming of a three-headed beast called Big Marijuana. Well, friends…that bitch is already here.