With cannabis and cannabinoid treatments increasingly accepted as legitimate and effective medicines for a wide variety of conditions from chronic pain to mental disorders and even cancer, the global medical cannabis market has been booming.

 

According to GrandView Research’s latest projections, the medical marijuana segment is set to register a whopping USD 100.03 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of over 17 percent. “Growing faster than any industry segment since the dot.com boom, this carries all the elements of an investor’s perfect dream: fast-moving, rocketing growth, generous returns, and a queue of institutional investors waiting on the sidelines to pour in capital,” exclaims Brett Pojunis, CEO of MJ Venture Partners

 

Looking beyond all the hype and hyperbole, the medical cannabis sector continues to be a highly lucrative, but confusing place for investors, entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers and regulators alike. PharmaBoardroom’s new InFocus Cannabis section strives to cut through the fog and shine the spotlight of clarity upon the myriad of issues currently affecting the fledgeling industry.

 

We start by presenting a snapshot of the opportunities and risks inherent to a business context where, in the lead market, the United States, cannabis is federally illegal and poorly regulated, while many smaller markets remain afflicted by severe supply and access constraints. Demonstrating how Canada has adeptly managed to seize the initiative and position itself as the world’s foremost hemp producer and exporter, with many of the sector’s most innovative and successful companies, we then go on to make sense of the entrance of big pharma into a space hitherto regarded as controversial, but now going mainstream.

 

Other aspects examined include: the flurry of M&A activity characteristic of a business model undergoing rapid consolidation, the internationalisation of Canadian operators, the way in which certain jurisdictions are tinkering with the rules in a bid to secure a head start, how smaller nations including Israel, Cyprus and Malta are aiming to get a piece of the action, why ‘deregulation’ in Europe may not be all it seems, and the proliferation of new types of auxiliary actors right along the value chain.

 

Go to InFocus Cannabis now