A drug company specializing in cannabinoid-based medications is getting ready to test a dried cannabis pill in Montreal designed to ease the pain and improve the quality of life for terminally ill cancer patients.
The pill is actually dried, compressed cannabis, which is meant to be placed in an aluminum device and smoked.
Bernard Fortier, the CEO of Tetra Bio-Pharma, a drug company based in suburban Ottawa, says the cannabis-based is designed to be an alternative to treatment with opioids, but with fewer side effects, according to their preliminary studies.
"We believe that this pill will enable cancer patients in their terminal phase, who are unable to get their pain control by opioids, to actually be able to get pain relief from this pill," Fortier says. "We expect as well to see an improvement in their quality of life."
He also says cannabis is less addictive, and much faster acting than opioids — pain relief could come within minutes, rather than in a half and hour.
Fortier says the pill would be smoked roughly three times a day by the patients, depending on a doctor's suggestion.
The trials are set to get underway next month in Montreal, in conjunction with local medical marijuana clinic Santé Cannabis, with more than 900 patients, and lasting about a year. Some will receive the pill, while others will receive a placebo.
If everything goes well, the pill could become commercially available as early as the summer of 2019, once Health Canada gives the drug a conditional approval.