By Sara Miller, NoCamels -
Using cannabis for medical treatment is not the controversial subject it once was, as taboos surrounding the use of the plant faded away. Today, dozens of countries across every continent have legalized the medical use of cannabis, among them Barbados, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Thailand, the US, the UK and Zambia.
And the industry is extremely profitable, with a projected global revenue for 2024 of $20 billion – a sum that is expected to rise to $22 billion within five years.
But while attitudes to medical cannabis have changed, the primary method of delivery – smoking – has remained the same. And for one Israeli startup, such an unhealthy practice to deliver medical treatment seems counterproductive, to say nothing of the growing stigma surrounding smoking.
“We couldn’t see smoking as a solution,” IMCI Pharmaceuticals CEO Alon Hershkovitz tells NoCamels. “[So] we decided to look at the evolution of cannabis products.”
What IMCI, which views itself as an R&D startup rather than a drug company, came up with was a way to create nanoparticles out of cannabis, which are then taken in one of three ways.
And according to Hershkovitz, this means more effective delivery of the cannabinoids – the active ingredients in the cannabis plants – as the body absorbs them better when they are in nanoparticle form.
“That allowed us to reduce the dose significantly in order to reach the same therapeutic benefit as the current solution,” he says.
The company works with partners who grow the cannabis plants and who then extract the cannabinoids in the form of a concentrated resin-like substance that Hershkovitch compares to honey. IMCI then uses a proprietary method to turn that substance into nanoparticles.
IMCI’s iCann platform has three different products, each with different qualities: The fast-acting version comes in the form of a pill placed under the tongue, which takes 5 to 10 minutes to act and lasts for up to two and a half hours; the long-lasting version is a tablet that adheres to the inside of the mouth, and while it takes up to 45 minutes to take effect, the benefits can last for as long as eight hours; the final version is a pill that is swallowed, which takes around 20 minutes to take effect and lasts for up to four hours.
The three different therapies are all designed for people suffering from chronic ailments and pain, and Hershkovitz says they all complement one another to provide treatment options for people suffering from a range of disorders, including pain, colitis, Alzheimer’s and autism.
The long-lasting pill, for example, is suited for pain relief during the night.
“They have a very good night’s sleep, and they’re waking up in the morning feeling much better,” Hershkovitz says, “because people with pain normally will wake up up to four times during the night because of it.”
The different medications include varying proportions of both THC and CBD, the two main cannabinoids that cause a reaction within the human body. And although the company primarily uses THC as its analgesic, the intoxicating qualities that are sought after by recreational users of cannabis are seen as a side effect that IMCI counters by carefully controlling the dosage in each treatment.
In fact, Hershkovitz explains, the company plans to provide the nanoparticles to pharmacies so that the pharmacist can create a “tailor-made solution” on the spot, according to the specific dosage prescribed by a physician.
The Gan Yavne-based company was founded in 2018 after Hershkovitch’s business partner in a previous venture was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the stomach. Cannabis greatly helped him in the last six months of his life, Hershkovitch says, which inspired him to take the plant seriously as a therapeutic.
His IMCI co-founder Avi Yakobovich had a similar experience with his own father in his final days, when cannabis greatly helped to ease his pain, and the two believed that they could have a positive effect on the lives of people who were suffering.
“We knew that this is really helping people,” Hershkovitch recalls. “We decided to learn about it more, and we read every study, every article.”
He highlights the massive amount of research on cannabis conducted in Israel, where THC was actually first isolated and identified in 1964 by Prof. Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who known as the godfather of cannabis research.
Largely self-funded, IMCI began to develop its therapies – with some support from the government’s Israel Innovation Authority and an angel investor. The company also worked in association with the Hebrew University’s Yissum technology transfer company, as the initial development had come out of the university.
IMCI is now looking for further investment, but Hershkovitz concedes that while he has great faith in Israeli innovations, the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza means that it is “a very difficult time.”
The ingredients in IMCI’s products are already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but the company is nonetheless planning human trials at the start of next year at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
The trials, Hershkovitz explains, are not formal tests as required for FDA approval, but rather to further observe the effects of the cannabinoids on the body.
IMCI aims to have its first product ready for market within nine months to one year, and he predicts that the other products will follow shortly afterwards.
Hershkovitz believes it is only a matter of time until the medical world stops recommending smoking as a method of delivery for cannabinoids, and IMCI’s nanoparticles are the solution.
“This is something that we expect to see in the market,” he says.
