With partnerships, NHG Phytopharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals seeks to structure itself for the Brazilian market
The company, headquartered in Campinas, wants to take advantage of the path paved from RDC 327 and establish itself as an alternative in the Brazilian medicinal cannabis market with the development of studies, product launches, and, who knows, in the supply
Published on 03/10/2021
By Sechat Content, with information from NHG
NHG Phytopharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals, a company based in Campinas (SP), has been structuring itself to participate competitively in the Brazilian medicinal cannabis market. Founded in December 2019, the business emerged from the decision of CEO for Latin America, Fernando Cesar Mendes, to prioritize the Brazilian market following the publication of RDC 327 by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). The norm was approved in December 2019 and came into effect in March 2020, regulating the manufacture, commercialization, and importation of cannabis-derived products for medicinal purposes.
>>> Follow Sechat on INSTAGRAM
To carve out its space in the national medicinal cannabis market, the company has formalized partnerships. According to NHG, among the agreements made are those with the Laboratory of Neuroimmune Interactions of the University of São Paulo (USP) and with UNILA (Federal University of Latin American Integration), in Foz do Iguaçu/PR, in double-blind preclinical and clinical trials with standardized pharmaceutical formulations based on cannabinoids.
Studies will analyze the use of cannabis in highly debilitating diseases
Initially, studies will be conducted on chronic inflammatory and highly debilitating diseases, whose treatments are still expensive or palliative. Hence the importance of studying new therapeutic approaches that clarify the potential of cannabinoids. In addition, preclinical studies will be conducted using experimental models of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases with randomized double-blind controlled clinical trials with groups of patients with neurodegenerative pathologies.
Until then, Mendes worked as a business developer for the Dutch company Green House Seed Co. (GHSC Trading), which has one of the largest cannabis genetic banks in the world. Currently, his connection with Green House remains only with the representation of the fertilizer line in Brazil. He also worked at GH Medical, a company that has been around for almost a decade and is the medical arm of Green House. “RDC 327 opened a path: there is no regulatory model like this in the world, it is something specific to Brazil,” Mendes points out. “The industry itself was not prepared for this. The pharmaceutical industry is now moving: the market was paved for the pharmaceutical in the eighth largest market.”
However, the CEO emphasizes that the issue is more complex, especially regarding the availability of raw materials to be manufactured and in facilities that meet the requirements of RDC 327. “This is the big challenge and the big problem of the market,” he considers.
NHG has signed partnership contracts
NHG reports that in the last 12 months it has formalized exclusive distribution contracts for products - active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished pharmaceutical grade products - with two of the largest certified manufacturing plants in Good Manufacturing Practices in Europe, located in Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
>>> Join Sechat's group on TELEGRAM and be the first to receive news
In parallel, the company also concluded a Joint Venture with Belcher Pharmaceuticals of Brazil, a multinational company based in Maringá/PR, which will encompass mutual cooperation in the importation, commercialization, distribution, research, and development of cannabis-based medicines in Brazil.
Belcher holds one of the seven requests awaiting Anvisa's opinion for authorization to produce and market medicinal products in Brazil, produced based on cannabis. If the agency approves the requests, or part of them, it will signify the start in Brazil of an industrial market for the medicinal use of marijuana with some competitiveness. In practice, those who use medicinal products based on marijuana should find them at more affordable prices.
>>> Join Sechat's group on WHATSAPP and be the first to receive news
Recently, NHG also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Portuguese giant Symtomax. Approved by Infarmed to start the process of implementing the cultivation and export of medicinal cannabis (raw material and finished products), the company is located in the city of Porto and, with a pre-approved license of 105 hectares, will be the largest operation of medicinal cannabis in Europe, operating in the production, research, cultivation, processing, and distribution of cannabis-based products and medicines in the global market.
In the field of research and development, the company has signed three other partnership contracts, one of them with Insilicall, the first Drug Discovery platform in Latin America, which uses artificial intelligence and Big Data in optimizing preclinical tests, reducing the need for animal and in vitro tests.
