Devonian Health Group Obtains Health Canada Research License

The botanical pharmaceutical corporation Devonian Health Group Inc. GSD said Thursday it has obtained a research license from Health Canada.

With the new license, Devonian will be enabled to commence a pharmaceutical cannabis research program at its facility in Montmagny, Quebec, the company said.

The license also covers satellite research sites at the laboratories of Dr. Suha Jabaji, Ph.D. and Dr. Louis Flamand, Ph.D., MBA.

“We can now initiate our cannabinoids-based pharmaceutical program with the vision that such products could be developed under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Botanical Drug Regulation,” Dr. André P. Boulet, PhD., Devonian's president and CEO, said in a statement. 

The FDA has created a strict regulatory pathway for botanical drugs, treating plant extracts as drugs, he said. 

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“The rationale behind this regulatory approach is that the observed efficacy of such extract has been associated with the action of multiple components including any synergistic effects also called the ‘'entourage effects.' Botanical drug development therefore involves methods that allow the isolation and characterization of synergistic bioactive components and plays a significant role in sustaining efficacy of this class of drugs. Devonian’s core strategy is to develop prescription drugs, including those based on cannabinoids, within the Botanical Drug Regulatory pathway.”

Devonian Health Group takes original therapeutic approaches focused on unmet medical needs, with its main goal being to create botanical drugs to treat inflammatory-autoimmune diseases such as ulcerative colitis and atopic dermatitis.

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