Cannabis Study Will Explore Pain Management Potential

A marijuana multi-state operator (MSO) that was part of the largest public launch on an emerging Canadian exchange has announced a study to determine the potential of medical cannabis in treating patients with inflammatory arthritis.

On Tuesday (May 21), Columbia Care (NEO:CCHW) confirmed a collaborative medical study with Westmed Medical Group to inspect the effectiveness of treatment using its ClaraCeed cannabidiol (CBD) tablets for pain management.

Nearly 100 patients will be examined for six months using these tablets alongside any current non-opioid-based treatments the patients may already use.

Rosemary Mazanet, chief scientific officer and chair of the scientific advisory board at Columbia Care, said the company sees this study as the first to look at a treatment option for rheumatologic patients.

She added that the company has seen anecdotal findings from patients with cannabis-based medicines, but hopes the new study will help confirm the validity of these claims with the ClaraCeed tablets.

As part of the study, enrolled patients will be monitored with a monthly check in from the researchers, including the collection of a patient global assessment, a patient reported outcomes estimate and a pain score based on the results from the medicine combination.

“We are also collecting safety information regarding the use of medical cannabis in the rheumatologic population, many of whom are taking numerous other medications,” Dr. Jill Landis, board certified rheumatologist at Westmed and lead on the study, said in a press release.

Shares of Columbia Care were down in Wednesday’s (May 22) trading session by 2.67 percent as of 3:19 p.m. EDT, indicating a price point of C$8.75.

As part of its first quarterly update since going public, the firm reported revenue of US$12.9 million.

“Access to the public capital markets will allow us to accelerate growth as we expand operations in 12 of our 14 existing jurisdictions and enable us to expedite the commercialization of our hemp-based CBD brands into traditional consumer retail channels,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of the company.

Following its public debut, the firm was quickly added to a new US cannabis exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Horizons ETFs Management (Canada).

The inclusion of Columbia Care into the Horizons US Marijuana Index ETF (NEO:HMUS) was done by way of a special “fast entry” rule from the fund operators, as the norm for new stocks is to be added during a quarterly rebalancing of the fund.

Horizons ETFs describes the rule as an option “to add new stocks into the portfolio shortly after they become publicly available, assuming they qualify for index inclusion.”

Columbia Care’s valuation granted it a maximum weighting of 10 percent among the fund’s total holdings. As of Tuesday, Columbia Care was the third stock by weight in the fund at 10.22 percent.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bryan Mc Govern, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.