RE:INMED MENTIONEDexciting times ahead!
InMed Pharmaceuticals in Vancouver, is refining the production of rare cannabinoids in the bacterium Escherichia coli. Extracting useful amounts of these potentially beneficial compounds from plants is unrealistic because they occur at very low levels, says Samuel Banister, a chemist at the University of Sydney in Australia. “For minor cannabinoids,” he says, “there is a huge need for synthetic biology.”
If the DEA decides to remove only Epidiolex from the list of schedule 1 substances, and not CBD generally, researchers in the United States might not be able to take advantage of these companies’ products. Instead, the substances will flow to laboratories in Canada, where medical and recreational marijuana will be legal as of 17 October. Or, research might sprint forward in Germany and the Netherlands, where Kayser says scientists face few barriers to studying cannabis. Anticipating a demand, he has a patent pending in Europe on the production of cannabinoids in engineered yeast.