By political borders only, yes, the U.S. has fallen way behind other countries in the development of cannabinoid pharmacueticals. Merely look at the number of published papers globally, China now coming on strong in advance research work. Fortunately the science was carried over from work at Technion in Israel into Canada and carried on from there, academic research (Israel) into application (Canada, clinical trials).
Interestingly enough, the Stockhouse report on Germany that mentioned LABS I believe also mentioned Avicanna as a 'spin off' from J&J's JLABS.
JLABS was established in 2016 in Toronto but Medipharm Labs was already ahead of them being established 'publicly' in 2015 (Pfizer got the jump)