Grow Pharma has launched a range of prescribed medical cannabis oil cartridge vaporisers for UK patients provided by Columbia Care International.
A range of four cartridges will be made available via Grow Pharma (the joint venture of Grow Group and partner IPS Pharma who also manufacture the vapes in the UK). The range includes two “balanced” cartridges, with equal amounts of THC and CBD, as well as two THC dominant cartridges with a 20-1 THC-CBD ratio. There will be a “day/uplifting” and “night/calming” cartridge for both ratios, which includes specific terpenes selected because of the effects reported by patients.
Cartridge vapes represent something of a breakthrough in terms of the options doctors have available to them when choosing the best cannabis medicine for their patients. Cartridges give prescribers a more standardised product for inhaled administration and are expected to appeal to patients’ consciousness about discretion, who prefer the ease of use or those who do not have prior experience of using cannabis flower medicinally.
Prior to the launch of cartridge vapes, the only inhaled cannabis medicines available were raw flowers. With the recent recognition by the NHS of vape pens as an administration device relating to smoking cessation, it is hoped that this will take away some of the reservations that doctors may have about prescribing flower. Cartridge vaporisers look and work similarly to e-liquid vaporisers. With a key difference where the products from Columbia Care will contain only cannabinoids and terpenes. No carrier oils or other ingredients are present, and naturally, they are vegan and gluten and lactose-free.
The inhalation route of administration plays an important role in prescribed cannabis medicines as the time to onset (how long it takes for patients to feel the effects of a given medicine) is very fast when inhaled.
This speed of onset is one of the main reasons why cannabis flowers are so popular with certain patient groups, particularly those with intermittent or breakthrough pain or anxiety.
Columbia Care also supplies a range of oils and is the only producer in the UK with a range of capsules. Oil and capsule formulations have longer onset times and a longer duration of action and can be well combined with vapes.
Grow Pharma and Columbia Care
Grow Pharma and pharmacy partners IPS will be supplying these Columbia Care cartridge vaporisers and, with other pharmacies already requesting to stock these products, it is expected that these will be available across a wider range of pharmacies in the UK. Grow now boasts the widest range of cannabis medicines available in the UK both in a number of medicines and a variety of formulations.
“Cannabis medicines are very personalised to the individual patient. This means it’s important for us to have a wide range of options for patients and doctors to choose from. Cartridge vapes give us another inhaled option that may be prescribed instead of flowers in certain cases” said prominent medical cannabis patient advocate and Grow patient access lead, Alex Fraser.
Cartridges reduce the potential for diversion of medicines as patients will likely only have one or two cartridges per month, based on data from Columbia Care’s IMPACT registry. They are also more consistent. Flowers can be within 3 per cent of the labelled quantity of THC or CBD (due to being herbal medicines that cannot be grown to perfectly precise specs). Cartridges are formulated in the lab and as such will be manufactured with complete consistency meeting the requirements of EU GMP formulated medication.
Cartridges are also very practical and straightforward for patients new to cannabis. Many do not have experience of how to use cannabis flowers and herbal vaporisers and some patients do not have the dexterity to manage to grind and fill herbal vapes multiple times each day.
Cartridges are much easier to use too, with the heating system activated as a patient inhales. They are also very discreet, producing less vapour, and therefore less odour than herbal cannabis medicines. The compact “pen” style cartridges vapes are also easy to carry around and use in public without drawing attention to oneself.
This can be very helpful as, even three years on from law change, some members of the public and even police officers are not aware that cannabis can be prescribed legally.
GROW Pharma webinars
Grow Pharma regularly organise educational webinars with Columbia Care International where the differences between mode of administration are highlighted and discussed with reference to the IMPACT registry.
Please contact us if you want to join one of these sessions as a healthcare professional.
Insights from Columbia Care’s IMPACT Registry database provide insight into patients’ use of different formulations including the combination of vapes with capsules and oils to achieve targeted therapeutic outcomes.
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