The UK’s first medical cannabis vape aims to start a revolution, reports ECigIntelligence
London-listed Kanabo has launched the first medical cannabis vaping product in the UK in a move the company’s founder hopes will ultimately revolutionise the way medicines are administered.
The company’s first vape cartridge is intended to address pain management and can only be used with Kanabo’s VapePod devices, which are medically graded and designed to measure a prescribed dose.
“Our vision is to have different types of cartridges with different formulas for different types of indications. So it’s very much like Nespresso, but the medical version,” said CEO and founder Avihu Tamir.
Kanabo, which operates in the UK, Germany and Israel, was one of the first cannabis companies to go public on the London Stock Exchange in February. Shares in the company rose slightly to £17.40 after the vape launch was announced last week before closing at £16.00 a share. The stock had a 52-week average of £15.45.
The firm said that, according to its research, vape products are the second-largest growing market, next to flowers, in the field of medical cannabis. This is, in part, because of how vaping is “mimicking the same benefits that you have from inhalation of cannabis,” Tamir said.
“The biggest problem is that for many years, everyone just used these old technologies of electronic cigarettes. They’re not made for cannabis,” he added.
Kanabo VapePods, which cost £50, are made from medical-grade materials, including glass and silicon. The inner chamber is ceramic and designed so that the product never touches the heating coil – one of the concerns with traditional e-cigarette devices as it could lead to traces of metal contaminating the vapour produced.
The Kanabo pod is automated, with the device activating magnetically as soon as the cartridge is inserted. There are no buttons on the device, heating starting the moment the patient inhales.
The cartridges are meant to last users around a month but patients who need to use the device throughout the day may need two or three cartridges a month. The cost of the cartridges is set by the clinic.
The cartridges will be distributed under the brand name Noidecs, and will only be available to patients of the LYPHE Group, which in the UK includes The Medical Cannabis Clinic and Dispensary Green.
Kanabo says the formula has a purity of 70% THC with 15% minor cannabinoids and terpenes and is based on an Israeli pharmacopoeia.
Kanabo plans to roll out cartridges for other treatments, including insomnia and sleep disorders, and mental health disorders like PTSD and anxiety, Tamir said. And while he plans to expand Kanabo VapePods throughout Europe, he hopes the technology will also revolutionise how other types of medication are administered.
“Imagine vaping your medicine. We know that inhalation has some huge benefits – fast onset, high bioavailability and certainty – that oral consumption of medicine sometimes does not have. This type of delivery method can go beyond cannabis,” he said.
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