Consider the size of the opportunity ¡ª today's billion dollar global medical cannabis industry is expected to hit USD 100 billion by 2028. That's a 100x growth in the next six years.
We've missed the bus once ¡ª India is the largest producer and exporter of licit opium in the world, contributing over 50% of global volumes. Yet there is not a single Indian firm that is a global leader in manufacturing opioid medications, a USD 40 billion market annually!
On the back of successful medical cannabis regimes in countries such as Canada, Germany and increasingly the United States, hundreds of thousands of patients are able to access medical cannabis to treat a host of chronic conditions, most of which do not have safe or effective treatment pathways ¨C neuropathic pains such as sciatica, fibromyalgia, and cancer-related pains; rheumatic conditions such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis; neurological conditions such as insomnia, migraine and Parkinson's; or the ever increasing burden of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression ¨C all conditions in which cannabinoid medicine has demonstrated ground-breaking results.
In this scenario, it is important to remember and highlight that India has the oldest medical cannabis regime in the world ¨C in the form of Ayurveda ¨C which records over 200 classical cannabis-based formulations. While Ayurveda recognises cannabis as a medicinal plant, allopathy does not.?
Thus, modern formulations containing cannabis compounds cannot be manufactured and marketed with approvals from India's drug regulator, until clinical research establishes the safety and efficacy of cannabis compounds in treating any particular condition. The onus is thus on the Indian pharmaceutical industry to undertake the required research to establish cannabinoids as therapeutic agents.
Plant-derived drugs have tremendous potential, and the global pharma industry has barely scratched the surface of developing modern therapeutic formulations from medicinal plants. A case in point is 'Artemisinin', first extracted from Sweet Wormwood by Tu Youyou, a Chinese chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015 for demonstrating the efficacy of Artemisinin in treating malaria.?
Tu Youyou drew inspiration from Traditional Chinese Medicine texts to find a cure for malaria, texts which prescribed using Sweet Wormwood to treat various fevers. Similarly, India too enjoys a unique position to build on the thousands of years of traditional medical knowledge contained in Ayurveda, to create novel therapeutics for unmet medical needs of the 21st century.
Cannabinoid medicine is projected to be the fastest growing life-sciences sector over the coming decade. Tapping this opportunity requires a change in mindset of Indian pharma, graduating from generic medicine manufacturing to R&D-based novel drug development. India has the necessary ecosystem ¨C scientists, clinicians, researchers, a large drug manufacturing ecosystem and very large patient population ¨C to really catapult the Indian life-sciences industry, and in particular cannabinoid therapeutics firms into global leaders.?
Cannabinoids have the potential to capture a significant share of this market with safer and effective alternatives to opioids and other analgesic medicines. The Indian drugs regulator has even issued regulations for a new class of plant-based drugs ¨C 'phytopharmaceuticals' ¨C a perfect bridge between traditional medicine manufacturing and modern allopathy.?
Yet, seven years after the establishment of this hybrid regulatory regime, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is yet to respond with novel formulations registered under this category of medicine. It is high time we change our mindset, focus on value-added drug development, play by the rules of global pharma with respect to quality, safety and efficacy standards, and win!
The author?is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Savikalpa Sciences, a cannabinoid-focussed pharmaceutical firm. The views expressed in the article are author's own.