A cannabis producer with ties to St. Albert is getting involved with cancer research.
Atlas Growers, a licensed producer, recently acquired 20 per cent of Falvocure Biotech, a U.S. company researching medicinal properties of cannabis to treat certain forms of cancer.
Jeffrey Gossain, one of the founding members of Atlas Growers, will also be sitting on Flavocure’s board of directors.
“To me, it’s very exciting. It allows Atlas to further cement their medical focus,” he explained.
Atlas Growers runs a medical cannabis facility located in Lac Ste. Anne County, northwest of Edmonton. Jim Hole, owner of Hole’s Greenhouse in St. Albert, is consulting as their director of plant health and cultivation.
The deal cost Atlas Growers $7.5 million, with the licensed producer paying US$500,000 and the issuance of common shares for $6 Canadian per share.
When it comes to investing in Flavocure Biotech, Gossain said the company is in line with Atlas’ vision for the future.
Rather than jumping on the recreational cannabis bandwagon, the licensed producer is focused solely on growing the drug medicinally.
“We’ve had a medical-focus all along,” he said. “We’re looking at different formulations we can do for the pharmaceutical industry.”
The biotech company's name, Flavocure, is connected to a chemical within the cannabis plant that creates its green pigment.
The company has been using the pigment-causing property – called flavonoids – in research for acute myeloid leukemia, brain and pancreatic cancer treatments.
Gossain said those forms of cancer are less common, which has allowed Flavocure Biotech to jump ahead in getting approvals for trials and treatments.
The company has also partnered with a few U.S. medical schools in researching new drug treatments.
One school in particular, Harvard Medical School, has paved the way forward using nano drones to target tumours in the pancreas and deliver flavonoids.
Flavocure has also found a way to target tumours in the brain. Most anti-cancer agents aren’t able to treat glioblastoma – brain cancer – because they aren’t able to cross the blood-brain barrier.
According to the company’s website, so far the results have been promising.
One of its treatments, called Creserol, is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. The drug is being used to treat acute myeloid leukemia.
Atlas Growers, which became a licensed producer last month, is still filling its shelves with product. Next year, the company plans on using labs within its facility to extract flavonoids from cannabis and ship it to Flavocure.
Flavocure Biotech is based in Baltimore, Maryland.
For more information about the company visit: https://www.flavocure.com/.
