The National Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) discussed on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, the legalization of marijuana cultivation and production in the country for medical and scientific purposes. Currently, cannabis planting, the plant’s scientific name, is banned in Brazil. However, but some groups and associations have obtained judicial decisions for the cultivation of marijuana in Brazil.
The board of Anvisa discusses the possibility of bringing to the public consultation two proposals under analysis since 2017. The first that creates rules the cannabis planting in Brazil for research and production of medicines. A second on the criteria for registration, monitoring, and marketing of these products.
Currently, in the country, the agency already authorizes applications for the importation of oils and drugs mainly based on cannabidiol, the most common marijuana substratum in drug production. Currently, only the production of a drug is allowed in the country.
The use of marijuana derivatives is more common in degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis up to some levels of autism and cancers.
If both opinions of the technical consultancy of Anvisa are approved, the proposals will be taken to the public consultation. After this stage, the technicians finalize a final project that will have to be voted by the Agency’s board again. There is no estimate yet when the technical standard could take effect.
Prohibition inhibits research and new herbal medicines
According to the president of Knox Medical, Mario Grieco “The lack of regulation and the prohibition of local cultivation of cannabis inhibit the research and the development of innovative medicines based on the herb in Brazil”. In addition to the economic benefits, local production could enable more than two million patients to use the herb in the treatment of various diseases. “We have a repressed market of potential users, but it will expand as studies into new indications for medical cannabis are completed,” he says.
According to the president of ABPI, Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta, bureaucratic issues in Brazil have hampered the pace of innovation by companies in the national market. “The recovery of the country’s economy is strongly linked to investments in innovation,” says Pimenta.
Data from a recent economic study on cannabis produced by Green Hub in partnership with New Frontier Data will be analyzed by Mario Grieco during the 39th International
Congress on Intellectual Property of the Brazilian Association of Intellectual Property (ABPI) from August 25 to 27, in Rio de Janeiro. According to him, there are over six thousand studies in progress in the laboratories, which exceed US $ 1 billion per year, on the use of cannabis.
The event, the largest of its kind in Latin America, is expected to receive around 1,000 participants, including experts, magistrates, consultants, lawyers, government officials and heads of international entities – such as the CTA – China’s intellectual property AIPPI – International Association of Intellectual Property -, as well as private research centers.