ISA Scientific recently signed an exclusive worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement to establish therapies containing a specific cannabinoid called cannabidiol (CBD), with Yissum, the technology-transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadasit, the technology-transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research (KIR) in the United Kingdom.
Cannabinoid scientist Raphael Mechoulam discovered CBD receptors not only in the brain but also in other bodily tissues, suggesting that the therapeutic effects of this non-psychoactive component of cannabis could be extremely broad. “He synthesized a whole ‘family’ of cannabinoids, and therefore with some changes in molecular structure you can tailor cannabinoids to different receptors,” KIR researchers Chaim Lotan explains.
CBD seems to beneficially impact systems in the human body that control pain, the immune system, heart function, cell growth and death, sugar metabolism and more. Lotan and his team studied its effects on rats with infarcts, areas of dead tissue resulting from failure of blood supply, as happens in a heart attack. Rats pretreated with CBD had 30 percent smaller infarcts, perhaps because of CBD’s known anti-inflammatory properties.
“My role was only the cardiac part,” says Lotan. “But we may see effects in other organs as well since we found so many receptors.” Due to the work of Mechoulam and others, and regulatory freedom to experiment with cannabinoids, Israel is recognized as the global center for cannabis-related research. That’s why ISA Scientific and other pharmaceutical cannabis companies, no matter where they are headquartered, often base their research and development operations in Israel.
ISA Scientific Chief Executive Officer Mark J. Rosenfeld said that CBD is well suited as a human therapeutic since it seems to have no consequential side effects and it does not hamper everyday activities like work, school, sports or driving.
ISA Scientific is further validating its nontoxic nature with the first formally approved human clinical studies on safety. Hemp is the best source CBD can be obtained from cannabis, but it is particularly abundant in hemp, a plant with no psychoactive properties and thus no potential for abuse.
Accordingly, one of ISA Scientific’s CBD production facilities is located in China, the world’s largest hemp producer. China also represents a huge potential market for the company’s therapeutic products; the Chinese account for one-third of the 371 million diabetics globally, and the numbers are rising.
“Unlike insulin and other existing medications for diabetes, CBD may actually suppress, reverse and perhaps cure the disease,” noted Rosenfeld. “So, the therapeutic alternatives offered by cannabis chemistry could go far in helping to resolve conditions responsible for a huge public health crisis in China and elsewhere.”