Cannex Scientific Announces Agreement to Advance Commercialization of FDA-Regulated Cannabinoid Therapies

PITTSBURGH–Cannex Scientific Inc. a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapeutic discoveries in the area of cannabinoid medicine, today announced it has entered into a sponsored research agreement with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Cannex Scientific, through this collaboration, is implementing a novel drug discovery platform to advance cannabinoid therapies in multiple unmet health needs. This model positions Cannex Scientific to identify nature identical compound combinations that exhibit superior therapeutic benefits. These natural compounds have a record of safe human intake resulting increased likelihood of rapid progression to IND, successful clinical testing, and attainment of FDA approval.

Cannex Scientific is applying its novel biopharmaceutical drug discovery platform to address unmet medical needs in neurobiology, gastroesophageal disorders, and lung injury induced by respiratory viruses. Initial work has led to the identification of a compound pair that has demonstrated significant in vitro activity in one of these therapeutic areas.

The research will be led by Dr. Aaron Goldman an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Bioengineer in the Division of Engineering in Medicine at the Brigham who has a wide range of expertise in the discovery and translation of therapeutics and clinical platforms from the bench to industry, Dr. Luke P. Lee, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and global-leading pioneer in pre-clinical bioengineering tools, and Dr. Ilana Braun Physician in the Department of Psychiatry at the Brigham and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. The team brings together a confluence of expertise in clinical medicine, human physiological models and microfluidic tools that allow for multiplex screening of cannabinoids and terpenes in numerous diseases and indications.

Rebecca Bagley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cannex Scientific said: “We are excited to work with Dr. Goldman and the research team to develop rigorous science-based discoveries in the endocannabinoid system that leverages the therapeutic potential of nature identical cannabinoids, a goal that has not been realized to-date in the marketplace. These discoveries position us to develop therapies with natural compounds that have a record of safe human intake providing a potential rapid path to IND through clinical testing, FDA approval and entry into the pharmaceutical market,” Bagley continued.

Dr. Bork Balkan, Chief Scientific Officer of Cannex Scientific says: “The drug discovery paradigm that Cannex Scientific employs positions us to harness the therapeutic benefits of plant extracts that are often the result of the combination of more than one compound, affecting more than one biological pathway. Our collaboration with the research team enables us to exploit state-of-the-art microfluidic organoid systems that provide a more physiological in vitro organ model than single cell type in vitro screens that are traditionally used for drug screening. This collaboration will also give us access to sophisticated in vivo models to demonstrate the efficacy of our compounds.”

The research team will focus on a number of biological and bioengineering platforms including an animal model of neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety and social phobia that the Goldman-Braun team published in Nature Translational Psychiatry.  In addition, the team will deploy biological platforms that mimic the natural physiology of the human brain and lung microenvironments.

Dr. Goldman stated, “This collaboration with Cannex Scientific is designed to robustly test and discover the power of the entourage effect in pre-clinical models.  We are excited about the potential for new therapeutic discoveries that can be quickly translated to help patients.”

Forward-Looking Statements

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(This information is primarily sourced from Cannex Scientific.  Highly Capitalized has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Read our Disclaimer here).