Hemp’s versatility and sustainability

Farming & Soil
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Hi Nithin,
I am Saket Bhattad, a lawyer by profession practicing in Nagpur.
I got pumped up reading the last line of your latest post on Hemp - “It will be awesome to get input from anyone who has spent time on this”. All hail technology for normal folks like me have a chance to get connected with you!

I did spend some time and resources on cannabis and this has been my story:

2019: My cousin’s (who lives next door) beautiful toddler daughter is diagnosed with epilepsy, and she is getting many seizures a day. Modern medicine practicing doctors tell they have no cure. We look out for alternatives, ayurved, homeopathy, herbal, no cure. Then we looked outside and found such cases are being cured by doctors in US by giving medical marijuana to patients, including children, and they are getting fantastic results. We try to get our hands on it, but it’s illegal, therefore we don’t proceed with it.

2020: In December, a very important UN voting takes place and Cannabis and its products are removed from Schedue IV of Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961; which meant Cannabis is no longer in the category of drugs like cocaine, meth, et cetera. This voting started being interpreted as Cannabis is now a medical plant.

So first, India has to ammend NDPS Act, 1985 by omitting the word “cannabis” from its definition of narcotics, to give it Government’s consent for public use.

But things are not that simple; India, just like US, is a union of states, where individual states get to make their own laws pertaining to law & order and revenue. So therefore the NDPS Act, 1985, specifically approved the States to make their own decisions if cannabis is being used for “industrial or medical purposes”. So therefore, it’s ultimately in hands of individual states to allow its medical or industrial use. In a Writ Petition before Delhi High Court in 2022, Central Governemnt admitted that they have never stopped State Governemnts to make any law for medical or industrial use of cannabis. So ultimately, it’s all in the hands of States.

With all of this in my head, I decided to gain confidence of my elders to take this up as a project and get medical marijuana license in Maharashtra. Hesitant at first, my family members later got convinced when I showed them various credible sources of how wonderful cannabis is, and how helpful and profitable this project can be.

30/12/2020: Me and my chacha (who’s also a lawyer), visit Dr. Rajpal Kashyap, Director of Central India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, (CIIMS) a bio-research facility in Nagpur. We explain him the entire thing, again, he was hesitant at first. But later he guided us what can be done.
Dr. Rajpal Kashyap asked us to submit formal research application at CIIMS, for “Medicinal Properties and Application of Cannabis”. We submitted the application and also submitted an application for Review of Literature on Medical Cannabis.

24/04/21: After about 4 months, we receive a Literature Review on Cannabis, one with a separate thick book of all the thesis’s and studies that were relied on by the researchers at CIIMS.

Writing review was one thing, getting hands on the real plant was something else. Cannabis was illegal, the plant was no where to be found for study, and even after my stretched request for them to accept illegally sources of cannabis for research purposes :sweat_smile: (I swear there’s no pun intended), they straightaway denied getting anywhere near an illegal object, and god bless them for that.

So I asked Dr. Kashyap, how do we make it legal, unless we test on it and scientists publish findings. He explained me the way-
1st we have to get it sourced from an international grower, who have well recorded concentrations of THC CBD and other such specifications that can be useful as a base product by scientists here in India.
Then we test on it. CIIMS is legally and technically equipped to run such tests, in fact CIIMS also has a few Patents in the medical field.
If tests run through in favour of medicinal properties, we approach Aayush Ministry, whom Dr. kashyap says has very good connect with, and do human trials on the findings of their earlier tests.
Once approved in human trials, we can begin legal farming of cannabis and setting up ecosystem around it.

Again with all this in my head, I started look for contacts who could get me in touch with Sh. Rajendra Shingne, who was FDA Minister of Maharashtra in the erstwhile MVA Governemnt in Maharashtra.

I got lucky. In early June 2021, I met Sh. Rajendra Shingne in Bhuldhana, his home constituency and explained him everything in detail, he got convinced and directed me to come to Mumbai to meet him again in Mantralaya.

25/06/2021: I went to Mumbai and again explained him the entire thing. He told me that he cannot get into technicalities directly, and such technical subjects must come to him with proper channel. He directed me to explain everything to Sh. Saurabh Vijay, IAS Secretary to the FDA Minister. I did so.
Sh. Saurabh Vijay directed his OSD Rakesh Waghmare to look into it.
OSD Rakesh Waghmare told me that it should come to his office from a Commissioners office, and directed FDA Joint Commissioner Gahane to look into the matter and prepare report.
JC Gahane did not gave me satisfactory replies and always diverted me for months at a stretch.
Before I could again start over from the top, the MVA Governemnt got toppled and Rajendra Shingne was no longer a minister.

Today 23/04/23: I saw your post and instantly got excited to even think of getting connected with you on this. I lack resources to make things happen. The present FDA minister, Sh. Sanjay Rathod, has even far better connect with me than his predecessor Rajendra Shingne.
But I realised I cannot do this just by doing lawyer stuff, I need to do the business stuff as well. I lacked there. I do not have the resources to make this happen.

If you came this far, I think the least I would ask from you is to have a proper brainstorming on coffee (or green tea if thats your thing) about this topic. I would bring my documents related to all of the above and we can discuss over the possibilities. No unnecessary expectations and no awkward commitments. Simple, pure, brainstorming.

Available at:
Phone and WhatsApp: 7796654555
Email: [email protected]

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Hi Aurick,

Great to connect and thanks for reaching out. Let’s connect over a call - have DM’d you with contact details. :slight_smile:

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Hi Saket, thanks for reaching out. We will reach out to you over email you shared as well. @Sagar_Gudekote from my team will be in touch shortly.

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Hey Nithin,

As a stakeholder in the Indian Hemp Industry, I am really grateful that a knowledge leader like yourself has started a positive conversation around Hemp and its uses.

In the year 2020, when I was just 21 years old, I sold my bike for 75,000 rupees and used that money to start Angetha Agro, at Angetha Agro we work with products of value derived from hemp. Currently our operations are focused on fabrics & clothing and ayurvedic wellness products and medicines.

Regarding your query about regulations, before I dive into the discussion, I’d like you to look at Hemp or Bhaang as a ‘tool’. Now the regulations & compliances around this tool depend on what function you are using it for, for instance:

Fiber:
Hemp fibers fall under the category of bast fibers along with flax, jute, kenaf etc. Therefore the regulations around fiber aren’t too complicated and you can use it to make products such as fabrics, paper and building materials without too much of a compliance hassle. In fact, this is the reason why at Angetha Agro we started by trading and exporting hemp fabrics & clothing, because as a bootstrapped startup it was the lowest hanging fruit for us to capitalize on.

Medicines & Wellness products:
Since Vijaya or Bhaang has been used in Ayurveda since ancient times, technically speaking “medicinal cannabis” has always been legal in India, it’s just different from how medicinal cannabis is packaged and sold in western countries. Bhaang falls under the category of a Schedule E1 substance in the Drugs & Cosmetics Act of 1940. There are many legacy Ayurvedic companies in India who have been selling Bhaang infused ayurvedic medicines in India for a very long time in the form of churan (powder to be mixed with honey, ghee or water to be consumed), kadha (decoctions) and capsules. In the recent years several startups in India have launched these products in a more modern form like tinctures, creams, oils etc. (We have a line of wellness products & medicines coming out soon as well!)

After the AYUSH ministry was established in the year 2014, any ayurvedic formulations or products are licenced, approved and regulated by the AYUSH department. This includes Cannabis infused products as well.

One important thing to note here is that according to Ayurveda, there is no concept of “Cannabinoids” meaning there is no CBD or THC, it’s just simply Vijaya extract oil or more popularly known around the globe as a Full Spectrum Oil.

Food & other nutraceuticals:
When we had started our operations in 2020, FSSAI actually didn’t recognise hemp seed or its derivatives and they were regulated by AYUSH. Which made zero sense because in hilly regions like Uttarakhand Bhaang ki chutney (chutney made from hemp) and bhaang ka namak (salt made from hemp) is a part of the daily diet, meaning its not “medicine” , its food. I know this because my mother’s side of the family is from Uttarakhand.

This non-recognition by FSSAI also created unnecessary roadblocks while working with Hemp seeds & its derivatives. I am sure my more experienced colleagues from the hemp food space will agree with me.

Thankfully FSSAI recognised Hemp seeds and its derivatives as ‘Food’ in November 2021 so now seeds and their derivatives can be sold after an approval from FSSAI just like any other food product.

This shows that the government is trying to regulate this plant in a very proactive manner. Which is a good sign.

Cultivation:
Cultivation of Hemp or Cannabis falls under the jurisdiction of the State governments.

So each state can have a different regulation with respect to cultivation. Currently in India two states have policies in place for cultivation Uttarakhand (for commercial and research purposes) and Uttar Pradesh (for research purposes only). In both these states this policy is only for plants with less than 0.3% THC.

A few weeks ago the Government of Himachal Pradesh also appointed a standing committee to weigh the pros & cons of legalizing & regulating cultivation of Cannabis in Himachal and they are supposed to submit a detailed report in a month’s time or so.

Apparently Uttarakhand is planning to introduce a new cultivation policy to replace the old one as well, which has a provision for a medical cultivation license, in which there is no THC limit. Which I personally feel is a great step.

Recreational:
You’d be surprised to know that in a way recreational use of Cannabis is legal in India. “Recreational use” in India is very different from the western perception of recreational use. In India people mostly prefer ingesting bhaang and not smoking it. We usually have bhaang after mixing it in milk along with dry fruits. This drink is commonly known as thandai, this is especially prominent during Mahashivratri and Holi. There are even government licensed & authorized bhaang shops in several places in the northern parts of India. This again is something that falls under the state government and not all states are accepting of recreational use of bhaang and allowing government authorized shops to open up there.

India has a very complicated relationship with Cannabis, I wrote an article about it some time back kindly do give it a read.

All in all, with time the government of India and several Indian states are realizing the potential of hemp and are proactively taking steps towards regulating and capitalizing on it. I am not attaching any links to any government notifications, laws or acts, since my esteemed colleagues from the industry have already done so in their answers earlier.

It is great to see that investors are finally recognising the potential of cannabis in India and even putting their money in this space. Even though my company is currently bootstrapped, several of my counterparts from this space are funded.

I’d love to connect with your team and talk more about my business and our vision for this plant and the company.

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Hi Nitin,

This is Revanth, co-founder at Hemptyful (https://hemptyful.com/)

While most of the aspects around Industrial Hemp and Cannabis have been covered in this thread, I would like to highlight some of the key aspects around the Hemp Seed Industry.

  1. FSSAI has approved Hemp Seeds as a food / ingredient in their Nov 2021 Notification.
  2. Despite this, there are heavy restrictions on Advertising hemp seed based food products on Google & Meta as their policies haven’t yet been sensitized to Hemp advertising.
  3. While Hemp seeds can be directly consumed raw or toasted, or can be a key ingredient to make hemp flour (which is extremely high on dietary fibre), hulled hemp seeds ( raw seeds with the outer dietary fibre rich cover removed) have better functional and sensorial properties making them one of the most sought after ingredients across the food industry.
  4. As of today the prices of raw and hulled hemp seeds often keep fluctuating (hulled hemp seeds often being priced at 6x the raw seeds) , and this limits the acceptability of hemp seeds currently to the premium / niche audience.
  5. This is because until today, all of the seeds are collected from the naturally growing cannabis (as the NDPS Act of 1985 permits that) and not collected from any hemp farm ( no commercial scale cultivation policy in place)
  6. The recent draft regulation for cultivation of Industrial hemp in Uttarakhand is positive news. However, seed breeding projects with an end goal of achieving high seed yields are imperative to bring down the prices for hemp seeds, to enable the masses to accept hemp, drive demand, and ultimately benefit all stakeholders including the farmers. This has to also be coupled with efficient hemp seed dehullers to also improve the pricing of hulled hemp seeds.
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Hi Shikhar, thanks for the note. :slight_smile:

@Sagar_Gudekote ++

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Hi @NithinKamath!
I am Lakshmi, co-founder of an eco-friendly athleisure brand - Maayeri Fits

We are currently using the Hemp fiber as one of our substitutes for non-eco-friendly plastic-based fibers and resource-dwindling fibers like cotton in the athleisure segment.
We have started with manufacturing tightly knitted Hemp fabric into clothes keeping in mind the functionalities necessary for Yoga and leisure. But the catch is to retain the 4-way stretch functionality that is a top comfort feature for athleisure customers. Since Hemp fibers have good blending properties with nearly every other fiber - we mix Hemp with as low as 5% of spandex - the lowest among all athleisure brands, and we still achieve even higher levels of comfort and stretch than the industry standard as of today, thus working towards our goal of making the entire athleisure segment more eco-friendly.

Post design and manufacture we have tested the product with 10+ different fitness practitioners. We have found that Hemp is well-suited to the athleisure segment given that it has:

  1. UV resistance
  2. High durability (hemp has the highest tensile strength among all natural fibers)
  3. Comfort and breathability due to it being a natural fiber
  4. High color fastness (color does not run off), giving the flexibility to experiment with fun prints and colors

Hope this gives some more clarity on the versatility of the Hemp plant and how it can potentially help in fighting the climate change crisis by acting as a sustainable substitute in the textile industry - a major contributor to climate change. With the right resources and economies of scale (athleisure being a growing market) the biggest drawback of Hemp being expensive can be addressed as well.

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As a matter of introduction, I am Dhaval Panchal (Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Hemp Factory.

The Hemp Factory (THF) is India and Asia’s first Hemp infused Cloud Kitchen & QSR chain based out of Mumbai,Maharashtra since 2022.

Over the past 5-7 years, the awareness & use of legal Hemp based products (for food, cosmetics and medicines) has seen a rapid rise across multiple Indian consumer groups, in a manner similar to other Multi Million Dollar Hemp markets such as Canada, Netherlands, France, Australia during their early days.

A large reason for the ever increasing demand for Hemp based foods products is due to the high nutritional value of Hemp seeds, Hemp seed oil and Hemp protein powder in terms of Protein, Amino Acids, Omega Fatty Acids, Minerals, Vitamins, Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, Iron, Dietary fibres & Calcium. The nutrition packed nature of Hemp based food ingredients closely rivals other super foods such as Quinoa, Chia and Flax. Combined with the unique narrative around the Hemp plant & its history, it has become a highly compelling choice for a wide range of consumers in a quick span.

The increasing adoption of Hemp by consumers has also been strengthened from a legal & regulatory standpoint, with the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) legally notifying standards for ‘Hemp Seeds and Seed Products’ wherein the hemp seed, hemp seed oil and hemp seed flour can be sold as food or used as an ingredient in a food for sale. (FNB News - FSSAI notifies stds for hemp seeds and seed products | FNB News)

This has led to an enormous strategic monetization opportunity being unlocked to meet the increasing rise in demand for Hemp based food & nutrition products from Indian consumers in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. This is precisely the opportunity which we are aiming to meet with delicious Hemp based food at The Hemp Factory.

The Hemp Factory - Menu.pdf (1.5 MB)
The Hemp Factory - Corporate Profile.pdf (4.0 MB)

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Hi @NithinKamath @Pai,

The entire industry is glad to see this effort from Rainmatter. My name is Varun Rungta and I am a Co-Founder at Oreka, focused on the medical uses of Hemp. Oreka is a 3 year old venture by G.C. Chemie Pharmie - a 40 year old pharmaceutical company in India. Hence, it is extremely crucial for us to ensure complete regulatory compliance.

I will love to connect to talk more about what we do and discus regulations from the perspective of medical applications of Hemp/Cannabis.

Looking forward!

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Neha from Vidhi shared this.
Cannabis_Final.pdf (589.3 KB)

I am Neha Singhal and I lead work in the area of Criminal Justice at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Our team has worked extensively on the issue of criminalisation of drug use. Our work has primarily focussed on examining the law on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and understanding how it operates on drug users.

I saw your post on Linkedin regarding hemp products and the need for regulatory clarity, and thought I should share our paper on ‘decriminalisation of cannabis use’ (Please find the paper attached). In the paper, we have analysed the extent of cannabis regulation in India and its effect on cannabis users and the criminal justice system. We have also analysed the economic impact of this regulation.

Just to summarise, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 provides for a general prohibition on production, cultivation, sale, use etc. of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Under the law, cultivation of the cannabis plant is also prohibited, except for medical and scientific purposes. Governments are also authorized to permit cultivation of the cannabis plant for industrial or horticulture purposes. The manner and extent of cultivation is further subject to control, through licenses and permits.

The criminalisation of cannabis use, cultivation, and strict controls over medical and industrial use of cannabis has created a prohibitionist environment. Despite this, cannabis cultivation and use continues to thrive in India. According to a report by the UNODC published in 2019, India was estimated to have produced around 2500 metric tonnes of cannabis in 2017, which includes both marijuana and industrial hemp. But the prohibitionist environment around cannabis pushes this marker under-ground and governments have largely been reluctant to allow cultivation of hemp. This prevents India from contributing to the world market for hemp products, which is pegged at $4.7 billion today. As the international hemp market is estimated to go up to $16 billion by 2030, restrictive policies in India continue to act as barriers to economic gains.

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Neha, this is a really good paper. Thank you!

Wanted to add a couple of things as you mentioned Anslinger.

At the time hemp was growing in popularity there were large paper and synthetic fibers manufacturing companies like DuPont who considered hemp as direct competition.

They worked alongside Anslinger to ban Hemp in 1937 in the U.S.

"Outside of prohibitive legislation, corporate interests have had an influence on the outlawing of hemp. In the 1920s businessmen like W.R. Hearst and William DuPont were threatened by Hemp, because they had a vested interest in the use of wood to produce paper.

W.R. Hearst, who was in the newspaper business, owned forest acreage which was used to produce paper. He was so threatened by hemp, in fact, that he produced contrived stories in his newspapers, telling tales of the dangers of cannabis.

William DuPont, who was in the business of creating chemicals that enabled the production of paper from timber, was equally threatened by hemp.

Making matters worse, Harry Anslinger, who in the 1930s was the first appointee as commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, upheld W.R. Hearst’s exaggerated claims about the deleterious nature of cannabis. Anslinger was responsible for introducing the Marijuana Tax Act to Congress."

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Petition was filed by Great legalisation movement India and was accepted by Delhi high court in 2019 for decriminalizing Cannabis in India and still the case is ongoing!!

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Hey @NithinKamath , @Pai

If you guys have time you should check out this book by Dr. Khagesh Gautam called ‘Cannabis Indica: Perception vs Potential’ . It presents a very well articulated argument for the decriminalisation of Cannabis in India and is probably the first book in the country to explore this topic.

I am linking it below:

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Hi @NithinKamath @Pai

Thanks for your posts on social media. Definitely gave us the attention lift we needed as an industry. And even more thanks for considering the industry as an investment target.

I’m Abhishek. Founder & CEO of www.hempstreet.in. We started out to fight mass ailments utilizing cannabis. We started out pretty late in the industry (2019) but have built a formidable footprint in terms of medical dispensation (several thousand practitioners, and an estimated patient base of several hundred thousand) accross 23 states in India.

Coming from building one of India’s early incubators (www.T9L.com) i was heavily (unintentionally happened) focused on healthcare. Docquity, Nirogstreet, Healthtrip and Spotdraft are some of our
successful portfolio. Spotdraft isnt healthcare but just one i am very proud of because they built a non clone for the world and are recognized globally for being a quality player.

Also proto.cx from my personal portfolio utilizes AI/NLP to help with financial and healthcare inclusion accross Africa and more recently south east asia. They are in discussions to expand into india via the rockefeller foundation.

This is where we realized the dismal state of pain relief in India. In the background several of my dear friends from Israel have built world leading Medical Cannabis companies. The opioid crisis in the US moved me and seeing the same happening in northern India, pushed us to start to solve for it.

So, we didn’t get into Cannabis for cannabis but to solve mass ailments that cannabis could solve. The North American experience in cannabis is purely recreational for which medical was a method of access and disappeared once recreational got approved. How else can you explain tens of billions of dollars creating only 2-3 ips in medical. So instead of trying to clone that flawed experience, we built against the grain. We focused on ailments, we focused on not being what the opioid industry was. So we took an unbiased look and realized that ayurveda , in terms of specific functional ailment relief was far ahead of the rest globally. It just needed clinical validation.

I look at it like the IT industry. It took us 30 odd years to go from being a “cheaper option for the same thing” to building world class products like spotdraft in legal tech or polygon in crypto. Or from cheap bikes to guy like ultraviolet. The excuse then was that the Indian enterprise market was not sophisticated enough to buy saas. But in healthcare, we dont have that excuse because we are ground zero for almost every mass ailment.

So we focused on the patient and the ailment. We pioneered (and lead globally) the movement on menstrual cramps relief via medical cannabis. Our proprietary (patent pending) formulation will go through a full blown clinical trial for menstrual cramps starting this month.

In our race to clone we’re losing sight of the problems that need solving. Churning out hundreds of products and force fitting them into channels is the wrong thing to do. Understanding the problem you are trying to solve and doing everything to solve it is the only way.

India is one of the few federally legal medical cannabis jurisdictions. In our mad rush to push CBD (again a cannabinoid that was made the wonder drug not for an entirely medical reason, but because it could be extracted from hemp, which is legal in all states in the US.) we are putting products over patients and ailments.

We built a blockchain based tracking system to ensure supply chain integrity (the largest deployment globally in the industry) because to solve for the opioid crisis , you have to be what it isn’t, which is responsibly dispensed. We also don’t directly take any consumer orders and purely sell via doctors, primarily because we believe that cannabis is not for everyone (another by product of the wall street created hype is the belief that cannabis is magic and needs no guidance around usage (for medical) ) and that anything with medial claims should be dispensed via a doctor, especially when it is schedule e1. Ironically it didnt stop us scaling.

Since 2019, we have been extremely focused on building what we think will create a global institution (something we Indians need to do more rather that create acquisition targets and VC run companies by the time you get to series B, I have seen this accross our former portfolio at T9L.) and have done things that aren’t really required by law but are just best practices that keep things honest.

The federal legality, freedom to do research and massive local population of mass ailments, gives us a unique opportunity to build a global institution to serve the patients needs. So i’d say more unbiased belief will take us there as an industry.

So we have just 4 products and chose to take the ayurveda route (with a push towards clinical validation). We chose classical formulations (that actually created the market for several others to copy) because two cycles need to happen once to scale a solution … the first, is the doctor’s belief and the second is one cycle of ailment relief by the patient. Classical formulations allowed the doctors to have a point of reference for the product, thereby reducing dispensation friction. We set out to own ailments and the go deep into solving them constantly with product dev and clinical validation. Our size of business in the medical sector is arguably the biggest in the country and our formulations have made it as far as israel, NYC an NJ (impending launch), colorado (2 prototypes with the largest cannabis edibles manufacturer in the world) and california.

So in summary, healthcare needs to be integrative and in medical cannabis, we (ayurveda) have the leg up since the base formulations and products exist. We just need to find the best in class complementary add ons globally to ensure the patient receives the best solution for their ailments. like delivery mechanisms and bioavailability from folks in Israel, and the massive wellness market in the US.

Cannabis is just the conduit. The adaptogens in ayurveda do the finer work. Israel gets it, the US is beginning to get it, India already has it. The polyherbal (versus single molecule) movement is already taking off globally after covid but somehow, we need it to come back to us from abroad to believe in what we have in ayurveda.

The reason i listed all the milestones we hit is partly blowing my own trumpet (wont hide that) but also to illustrate the scale we have achieved in what is considered an “emerging market” that anyone can if they see the gargantuan scale of what needs solving and put that over products. Also, that we have the confidence to lead globally and build global firsts and not just build an “indian version of”.

Our industry has its own unique regulatory and market advantages to win globally. We just need to focus less on a flawed , wall street driven example and more a solutions based one. Our mantra has been 1) 100% deep focus on ailments and patients, and constantly evolving solutions, b) Secure dispensation and c) clinical validation.

As much as we all want an ideal regulatory system, in medical cannabis, we actually have one of the friendliest ones globally ( at least when it comes to nationwide distribution). India is the generic pharmacy of the world so we know how to manufacture. The recent Nimbus acquisition by Dr. Reddy’s is a clear indication that canna APIs + contract manufacturing is somewhere the biggies will be.

So instead of being a late player in a flawed overseas model, lets be a pioneering player in a global model that works and that we can own. Ayurveda in medical cannabis can be india’s (for lack of better example) tik tok moment.

Cheers

Abhi

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Thanks, @Abhishekmohan. You are definitely taking a different approach to mainstream Hemp. :slight_smile:

Aren’t there still quite a few questions about the efficacy of adaptogens?

I was checking out the 4 products listed on your website, how do you know these work? As in, are there clinical studies & trials? Also, who prescribes these, traditional allopathic doctors?

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Haha thanks @NithinKamath . We’ve been funded thus far by believers of the plant, led zeppelin and CCR fans and my former videogames industry friends with cash… so we’ve been able to keep it pretty real and not have to bend too much with the experiments we’ve done. However, the next phase will have to be institutional money. Clinical trials are definitely the dominant use of funds.

Yes there definitely are questions around efficacy and answering them is 100% of what we’re setting out to do. We have done a doctor reported study with 360 clinics and 800+ patients for menstrual pain to gather efficacy data. Then an observational (published) study on post operative pain relief after piles surgery, when compared to traditional NSAIDs. A pending study on sexual wellness and clinical trial for our proprietary product for dysmenorrhea with the amrita school of ayurveda (will share CTRI reg when i have it later today) for which the recruitment process has kicked off. Save GW pharma, the other “studies” in north america have been “lets keep giving them cbd till they pass out”. Canopy’s menstrual pain one being the latest.

The luxury (if i can simplify it to that) with classical ayurvedic formulations is that the cannabis content (being from leaf) is of a microdose nature when it comes to THC. Less than 1 mg per dose in many cases. So for the large part, patients can be prescribed those without the psychotropic effect risk. And we maintain a fort knox style supply chain control. Simply put, abuse is much more economical via a dealer than taking 500 of my tablets.

Yes, admittedly, we did the “launch first trial after” gig. But in effect the trials will show what we already know. However, if we are to break the impasse of lack of publishing in ayurveda and to be able to make therapeutic claims, these trials have to happen. While formulations have stood the test of time, delivery methods and bioavailability considerations have definitely changed over the last milennia. The key is to take these formulations via the israeli ecosystem via our partnerships to make them more world medicine worthy.

We have several thousand ayurveda doctors prescribing our products and a steadily rising allopathic prescription base (in the low hundreds) but all our case studies ( Case Studies - Hempstreet) are from ayurveda since the politics stops allopathy doctors from publicly praising our products from fear of ima retaliation.

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Hi @NithinKamath, I noticed your comment on the allopathy doctor prescriptions and wanted to plug in Oreka to the conversation.

We started Oreka in 2020 after a year of studying the industry and the available clinical data. Coming from a pharmaceutical background, our focus has been to follow the current system of medicine while working with Cannabis.

At Oreka, we’ve partnered to access a team of 60+ MRs and market our product via Orthopedics. We currently have presence in 11 states with a prescribing doctor base of ~500. We’ve chosen to work with topical application medicine for pain relief:

  1. Due to the current challenges of the Indian ecosystem, ensuring consistent efficacy and safety profile for a consumption medicine at a viable cost is a challenge. With topical application product, we are able to ensure the two from a quality and cost standpoint.
  2. Allopathy doctors are usually not comfortable to prescribe Ayurvedic medicines (except in Palliative care / well known products like Liv52) due to the lack of quality clinical studies. Here, we are able to penetrate the market and educate the doctors on Medical Cannabis with a topical medicine, that they are more comfortable to prescribe/recommend to their patients.
  3. Lastly, to ensure compliance with all possible regulations in India. With proprietary consumption medicines, you start walking into certain grey areas as per our current understanding of the system.

Our near term focus is to work on topical medicines as we believe this is currently the easier of the two, where we can control safety, efficacy, cost and regulatory compliance. At the same time, providing a large potential market.

With clinical studies - we have the team and the experience due to our parent company. However, we believe some structural changes are required before high-quality clinical studies make sense from a Risk-Reward perspective. For e.g. Any company can implement a project to get a variant of Epidiolex approved in India for Epilepsy but it will not make sense due to the high cost of drug (as pharma-grade APIs are still too expensive for the Indian market) and the limited potential market. Here, we are in talks with multiple companies to figure a way to make the pharma-grade APIs cost-effective for India. Once successful, we will undertake development projects for our shortlisted indications, where we believe Cannabis/Cannabinoids work based on globally available data and on-going trials.

Our focus is on India and plan to work with the current system of medicine. I’d love to connect with the team to talk more about our vision if this is of interest to you.

Regards,
Varun

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Thanks for sharing, Varun. We are still working on figuring out the regulatory implications of being invested in the sector. We will get back once we have built enough confidence to take the plunge. :slight_smile:

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@NithinKamath @Pai

https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?trialid=82646&EncHid=&userName=

CTRI link as promised :slight_smile:

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Hey @Abhishekmohan ,

Just wanted to say we really admire the work you and your team at HempStreet have done in this space. Keep up the good work.