{"id":54916,"date":"2022-05-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/05\/28\/the-new-colombian-gold\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T05:45:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T13:45:41","slug":"the-new-colombian-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/05\/28\/the-new-colombian-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Colombian Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

For all the talk of federally legalizing cannabis in the US, sometimes one fails to take proper stock of the progress that\u2019s being made beyond our borders. If one manages to keep tabs on Canada and monitor the prospects for legalization in Mexico, the focus is still too rarely tuned into what\u2019s happening outside of North America. Be it science from Israel, shifts in public approval across Europe or Latin America\u2019s rosy prospects as a major international exporter of cannabis, there\u2019s undeniably a plethora to be gleaned by paying close attention to other markets.<\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s what Alvaro Torres, founder, director and CEO of Colombia\u2019s Khiron\u00a0Life Sciences Corporation is betting on.<\/p>\n

Founded in the wake of the Congress of the Republic of\u00a0Colombia\u2019s 2016 decision to approve\u00a0a regulatory framework for a national medical cannabis market, Khiron states it\u2019s one of \u201cthree or four\u201d companies currently licensed to cultivate the plant for sale in the country providing product to more than 90 percent of Colombia\u2019s medical cannabis patients.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen medical cannabis came along a few years ago,\u201d Torres says, \u201cI just knew it was here to stay, that it wasn\u2019t a trend, that it was going to be here for the next century.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As part of this plan, Torres correctly anticipated that establishing an export element to his business would provide Khiron with seemingly limitless opportunity to expand as other countries and government bodies join the steady march of nations ushering in new eras of cannabis reform. \u201cMy approach was to create a disruptive force to improve the quality of life for people in Colombia, because that\u2019s where I live, and then the rest of Latin America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Khiron<\/a>
Khiron\u00a0Life Sciences Corporation Director & CEO Alvaro Torres in Columbia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To underscore this effort, Torres, a self-proclaimed Greek mythology fan, decided to name his company after the centaur known as the patron saint of pharmacies\u2014a creature who, according to legend, once taught Hercules about medicine. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to create a company that was based on marijuana or cannabis,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to create a company that was about improving the quality of people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past five years, Khiron has made great strides in accomplishing this goal. Today, the company has various deals and strategic relationships with at least six countries. In December 2021, Khiron opened a clinic in London, and Torres estimates that half of Khiron\u2019s cannabis sales will come from Germany in 2022.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also expanding within Latin America with clinics in places like Peru and Ipanema, Brazil. When it comes to cultivating the product for sale, Khiron\u2019s position as a Colombian exporter couldn\u2019t be more ideal. Beyond the fact that the country\u2019s proximity to the equator makes for longer growing cycles and desirable conditions, Colombia also provides access to two oceans, plus cost-effective labor, water and energy.<\/p>\n

The bigger challenge comes from the regulatory side, which is why Khiron hired one of the people responsible for crafting Colombia\u2019s cannabis regulations to serve as its vice president of regulatory affairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Khiron workers cultivate from the brands Bogot\u00e1\u2019s location. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Juan Diego \u00c1lvarez recalls that he was studying for his PhD in public health law at Tulane University in New Orleans when he got a call from Colombia\u2019s Ministry of Health asking him to come home. The reason? They needed help shaping the regulation of medical cannabis in the country. In 2017, after two years, he left to join Torres at Khiron, where today he oversees all that goes into being compliant as a prominent international cannabis brand.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOne of the reasons I left the ministry to join Khiron was that my approach to medical cannabis was more focused on how you ensure patients have access to a safe product, and the government was thinking more about how to position Colombia as a leading exporter of raw material,\u201d \u00c1lvarez said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, in speaking with \u00c1lvarez and Torres, they repeatedly take the conversation back to Khiron\u2019s focus: First and foremost, Khiron is dedicated to providing the best possible access for Colombian medical cannabis patients. And, on that front, they\u2019ve already helped usher along some rather incredible advances.<\/p>\n

First, in July 2021, the Colombian government decided that patients could access medical cannabis at any drugstore in the country. Before then, there were some 1000 locations legally permitted to dispense it. Then, in December the same year, the government decided to make it mandatory for insurance companies to cover the cost of all medical cannabis products. This latter ruling went into effect on January 1, 2022, making Colombia only the second country on the planet\u2014along with Germany\u2014to offer such a program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat happened because of the work that Khiron has done with the government,\u201d Torres said. \u201cEverybody talks about brands a lot, but in the end, a brand is a connection with a consumer or a patient. That connection is what\u2019s going to be important, not the design of our label. We must always try to make it better for the patient and easier for the patient to get the medication. That\u2019s how you build a brand\u2014the rest is just cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Columbia\u2019s proximity to the equator makes for longer growing cycles and desirable conditions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the immediate future, \u00c1lvarez is currently keeping a close eye on Mexico as Khiron\u2019s next major market to tackle. Though legalization remains a work in progress there, the presence of former president Vicente Fox Quesada on Khiron\u2019s board suggests that something may be imminent.<\/p>\n

At least for now, however, the US isn\u2019t a top priority market for Khiron, due to concerns of oversaturation and lack of access. But neither \u00c1lvarez nor Torres is closing the door on one day bringing Khiron to America. Whether or not they ultimately export product to the US, both men feel they\u2019ll always have something to offer in the form of the invaluable data they\u2019ve collected through their clinics in Colombia and other markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been collecting a lot of data about how cannabis interacts with other types of drugs, how cannabis works in different concentrations and with different pathologies,\u201d \u00c1lvarez said. \u201cThis is information that\u2019s not generally available, and it\u2019s going to be one of the keys in the future by offering cannabis products and treatments to patients in any jurisdiction. Of course, this is something that was created in Colombia, but now it has a global face and global potential use.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published in the\u00a0print edition<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post The New Colombian Gold<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: The New Colombian Gold<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all the talk of federally legalizing cannabis in the US, sometimes one fails to take proper stock of the progress that\u2019s being made beyond our borders. If one manages to keep tabs on Canada and monitor the prospects for legalization in Mexico, the focus is still too rarely tunedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":54917,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12978,16206,85,16207,16208,4269,415],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54918,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54916\/revisions\/54918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}