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pharmacokinetic data in patients. Over the long term, the data from these trials will help to establish our medical cannabis capsules as one of the premier treatment options available to patients and physicians wherever the legislation will allow their use.
CCIM: Satipharm sales have commenced in Australia. Can you provide any insight into the success of the product launch?
HVST: The legislative changes in Australia allow us to supply in that country as an unapproved medicine. Physicians need approval to prescribe and at this point in time, physicians need to get approval for each individual patient separately. As such, it is not entirely accurate to talk about a 'product launch' as this carries an expectation of a free market system.
The legislation changes in Australia have only been active since November 2016 - a little over 12 months. Since that time, we have seen a slow and steady increase in interest around our capsules from both doctors and patients. Our capsules are the only capsule product available in Australia and the results from our Phase 1 trial have now been published so these two elements combine to make a unique offering for Australian patients and physicians.
We expect to see steady growth in sales in Australia, especially as the physicians gain experience with our capsules. However, the medical use of cannabis is still a very new concept in Australia so we think it will take some time for this market to gain momentum.
CCIM: In your press release you mention that “The Company is committed to aggressively further pursuing this approach and bringing its proprietary delivery technology to other commercial markets, Canada being the next one. We will be delighted to keep the market updated about our progress.” Could you share with our readers any sort of timeline on when we can expect to see Satipharm in Canada and perhaps share what you can about the progress in this regard and what challenges lie ahead?
HVST: We have undertaken a full examination of the ACMPR requirements for sale of our capsules in Canada. We are in the process of importing a small number of capsules for confirmatory QA testing in Canada. We are extremely confident our capsules will pass with flying colours because they have already undergone pharmaceutical level testing for supply into the Australian medical market and prior to use in our clinical trials.
The next step will be our application to Health Canada for approval to add the Satipharm capsules to our existing sales license.