2019-01-29

Rob Davidson on CURE’s DEA Schedule I license | Big Biz Show – 01/24/2019 (Pt 2)

Video Transcript

Sully: Great to have you along today. Rob Davidson, CEO of CURE Pharmaceuticals on the air with us to talk about sort of the new paradigm in medication delivery, and that’s their CUREfilm. You can get more information by going to curepharmaceutical.com. I keep on calling them Cure Pharmaceuticals, just because it’s…but it is singular. Cure Pharmaceutical is the name of the company. And their stock symbol is CURR. He mentioned the C word, Russ T., and in your mind, that is cannabis.

Russ: Cannabis!

Sully: Hey, Rob, talk about that because it seems as though we are trying to get it right here in the U.S. as an investment vertical, but Canada got it right the first time. And in my mind, you know, until the banking law is correct, obviously, it is a little bit of a dicey situation, is it not?

Rob: Yeah, no, absolutely. So it’s interesting, you know, you said it right. Israel and Canada are way ahead of the curve from a research standpoint with cannabinoids and the legal regulatory aspects as well. We are a pharmaceutical company, so as far as the recreational side, we do not partake in that, obviously. We follow FDA and DEA guidelines. The only real way to do research in the U.S., currently, is to have a Schedule I, DEA Schedule I license, and that is actually what we have. We were able to get that accomplished, which is no small task, you know, getting a DEA Schedule I license. So we are allowed to do the research, and manufacturing as well, of cannabinoids for pharmaceuticals. That’s very exciting for us.

Sully: What’s the intersection there, Rob? What are you hoping to find? You know, obviously, there have been claims of cannabinoids to assist in epileptic seizures, with headaches, with inflammations. Are you looking at all of the above, or is there a specific sort of indication that you are dealing with?

Rob: That’s another good question. We have some relationships in Israel, Technion Institute, which is the, probably, the most famous institute right now for cannabis research and cannabinoid research. Just to clarify, there’s 140 different cannabinoids in the plant itself. It’s not just THC or CBD.

Sully: Right.

Rob: There’s many other molecules that are very effective and are biologically active. We have what we call the endocannabinoid system in our body, and it has the most receptor sites of any other system in the human body, you know, the endocannabinoid system where cannabinoids directly affect. So we believe it’s a new frontier of medicine.

Russ: Are you making stuff for other than human consumption? I mean, animals?

Sully: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Russ: Can you slap a strip on your puppy?

Sully: We just had somebody on the air, like… No, I mean, that’s the next sort of phase of this. Have you guys talked about that?

Russ: Right?

Rob: Absolutely, yeah, especially with the delivery system. If you think about it, we can make a bacon-flavored thin film, a mucoadhesive. You know, I think that’s an effective way to deliver…

Russ: Liver snaps.

Rob: Yeah, absolutely. Exactly. So, thoroughly effective.

Sully: Bacon-flavored cannabinoids are going to open a whole new audience, I can tell you.

Russ: Wow, I want a bacon-flavored cannabinoid.

Sully: Hey, Rob… Behave. Hey, Rob, before I get you out of here today, I want to talk a little bit about some of your recent press releases. You had fantastic press releases about, in the month of January, and you presented at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference. Just as a CEO in this space, this is a real thing now. I mean, this is a real vertical and this is something that we all should be taking seriously, as not only an investment vertical but also the fact that companies like yours, bio-pharma companies, are getting in this space. What was it like from your end, seeing that? Was it an eye-opener or is it something you have expected for a while?

Rob: Yeah, no, I think it’s a little bit of both. You know, we expected it as regulatory changes a little bit, the climate, and, you know, that stigmatism, that negative stigmatism kind of gets off of the plant itself because of regulatory changes. I think you’re going to see more and more pharmaceutical companies getting into the game a lot for a multitude of indications. So it was pretty exciting to see, though, that a lot of companies out there are looking at the science side of it and the research side of it and really going about it the appropriate way and not just jumping on the, you know, the cannabis bandwagon. They are really looking at how can we help, you know, treat patients, and actually, you know, develop products that are going to be effective in some of these really difficult-to-treat indications. I think you alluded to epilepsy. You know, GW Pharma just got an FDA approval for EPIDIOLEX for pediatric epilepsy, which is pretty exciting.

Sully: Well, we got to get you here in San Diego. I know it’s not a difficult thing to get you to head down this way.

Russ: There’ll be a big conference down here.

Sully: Yeah, we need to get you in San… Hey, Rob, thank you so much. Rob Davidson, CEO, Chairman of CURE Pharmaceutical. CURR is their stock symbol. You can go to curepharmaceutical.com.