Big news today for Medical Marijuana Inc. portfolio company AXIM Biotechnologies, literally. They were featured in an article on Reuters by Natalie Grover, who reported that the cannabis biotechnology company “has a trump card in its quest to develop a cannabis-based chewing gum”: Medchew Rx. Specifically, the gum is being used for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which affects 400,000 individuals in the US alone.
The trump card Grover is referring to here is a major discount on cannabis provided by the Dutch Government to AXIM Biotechnologies. According to Lekhram Changoer, AXIM’s Dutch CTO, the company will be able to effectively pass that discount directly to their customers in the form of a reduced price on Medchew Rx.
This one thing that will help give AXIM Biotechnologies a competitive edge against a major player in the market, GW Pharmaceuticals Plc., who offers an under the tongue cannabis spray called Sativex. As Grover writes, “state health systems in some countries, including GW’s home market, do not consider the drug [Sativex] sufficiently cost-effective to justify coverage.”
Further, a “typical British patient takes four sprays of Sativex daily at a cost of about 5.56 pounds ($8.24).” This is where it all comes back to AXIM’s cannabis source discount: they can offer Medcew Rx, a product that effectively accomplishes the same goals as Sativex, for far less money.
The new, mint-flavored gum is expected to make a debut in America in 2017. Until then, AXIM Biotechnologies will be focusing on their next phase of clinical trials set to start in Spring 2016.
