VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- There are 5,000 pending patents on different cannabinoid compounds at the U.S. Patent Office - most of them registered by Pharmaceutical companies who are intending to commercialise the naturally occurring compound found in the Cannabis Sativa .
GeoNovus (CSE:GNM) (GMINF-USA) is a Canadian company positioning itself to benefit from a research explosion that is expected to drive the legal marijuana market from $1.53-billion in 2013 to $2.57-billion by the end of 2014.
On June 26, 2014 GeoNovus announced that it has signed a letter of agreement with a Uruguay company actively working in multiple areas of the medical marijuana, industrial hemp and cannabinoid science industries to develop products for consumer use.
The initiation of the agreement within Uruguay gives GeoNovus pioneering and exclusive rights to acquire and participate in multiple business ventures in Uruguay including: growing facilities, cannabinoid product development, medicinal trials and industrial hemp product development.
Uruguay recently became the first country in the world to legalize the sale cultivation and distribution and consumption of cannabinoids in December of 2013.
"I got involved with medical marijuana in 2001, when my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer," stated Julian Strauss, GeoNovus Uruguayan Operations Manager in an exclusive interview with Financial Press , "we discovered it had medicinal properties not available from conventional drugs."
In Vancouver, BC Strauss collaborated with researchers from the University of British Columbia and formed a compassion club, developed "partial decarboxylation delivery systems" for patients dealing with painful side-effects of therapeutic treatments for multiple sclerosis and cancer. The club organised informal trials, and the results went off the charts.
"At that point I started reaching out to doctors," stated Strauss, "We collected patients, grew medical marijuana, created oil extracts and collaborated with health authorities and doctors. It was impossible grow enough marijuana to satiate the demand for medicinal oils."
The team created proprietary collection systems to produce oils on an industrial level, anticipating that Canada would deregulate, and they could begin human trials with the developed intellectual property or "IP".
"The de-regulation did not come in a way that was helpful to us," stated Strauss, "The narrative in Canada changed to guys in dread-locks promising to save the world. So I got on a plane to Uruguay and began discussions with the Latin American scientific community, and also with regulators and legislators. We are now building a legal and logistical framework for the development and commercialisation of cannabinoids in partnership with Uruguayan government bodies, universities, and growers clubs."
Strauss believes the quickest route to cash flow in the marijuana industry is by creating infrastructure for clinical hemp and marijuana trials, and then creating protocols for lab studies, full-spectrum therapies, chemical and mechanical fiber analysis.
"The 5,000 pending patents tell the story," stated Strauss, "Research into the uses of cannabinoids is about to explode. We can offer entrepreneurial companies an environment to collect data, run trials and ultimately register intellectual property. For providing this service in Uruguay, our company will maintain a royalty percentage. We believe there is a great financial opportunity in helping to legitimize cannabis technology companies."
"Dry cannabis is a smokescreen thrown up to regulate the medicinal value of cannabis," explains GeoNovus President Michael England, "This is not where we see the big business opportunity. There is a $200 billion dollar industry waiting in the wings for deregulation. We intend to create manufacturing protocols for specific pathologies. By establishing operations in Uruguay, we can get in on the ground floor."
Cannabinoids are one of the only compounds in nature that naturally break down the blood barrier in the spine and brain. MRIs and CAT scans of the body's reaction to therapeutic treatment confirm the endless potential for hemp-based homeopathic remedies.
"Every pharmaceutical company in the world is creating allopathic carbon-based lab derivatives of cannabinoids to try and mimic the natural function found within the plant's genome," stated England, "But natural cannabinoids are the answer, and for that they will need a scientific and regulatory environment that promotes experimentation and clinical trial. Uruguay provides us with all of these factors as well as access to a significant pool of professional expertise - Big Pharma will be taking notice."
Therapeutic cannabinoid treatments for all types of ailments from multiple sclerosis and cancer to headaches and seizures are quickly becoming a popular alternative to traditional chemo and medicines. Ground-breaking cannabinoid research being conducted by companies like GeoNovus in "Cannabis friendly" countries like Uruguay will pave the way for the future of these emerging alternative therapies.
GeoNovus is currently trading at $0.04 with a market cap of only $2 million under the symbol GNM on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and GMINF in the USA.
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