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Canopy Growth sues GW Pharmaceuticals.
In short, Canopy Growth’s suit focuses on “patent infringement” with regard to GW Pharmaceuticals’ CBD-based product Epidiolex, which is the first FDA-approved drug extracted directly from cannabis plants.
The patent, which was issued to Canopy on December 22, is called “Process For Producing An Extract Containing Tetrahydrocannabinol And Cannabidiol From Cannabis Plant Material, And Cannabis Extracts.” That patent, in essence, belonged to a German company called C3, which Canopy acquired in 2019, and Canopy writes in its suit that the patent is “part of a patent family dating back more than twenty years to October 17, 2000, with the filing by named inventor Adam Mueller.”
Canopy claims that GW “manufactures the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Epidiolex—CBD—using the CO2-based extraction process described and claimed” in the patent, to which GW in part owes the product’s “success,” and that GW has “been monitoring” that patent family “for over fourteen years.”
Whether Canopy’s suit will be successful, and the meaningful implications of such an outcome, remains up in the air. But we will certainly be tracking developments as two of the biggest companies in the cannabis world go head-to-head.
Trinidad delays cannabis report.
As Cannabis Wire reported last month, a legislative committee in Trinidad was due, by the end of December, to finalize a report on legislation that would legalize cannabis for medical and religious purposes.
That committee instead published an interim report that asks for a three-month extension due to “the complexity of the Bill.”
Virgin Islands governor congratulates hemp commission on first license selection.
Governor Albert Bryan Jr. congratulated the Virgin Islands Hemp Commission after a December 23 meeting during which the Commission voted to issue its first hemp production license.
“This begins a new economic era in the U.S. Virgin Islands that will not only benefit the government through new revenue streams, but also will provide economic and growth opportunities for the Territory’s farmers and local business entrepreneurs,” Bryan said.
“I applaud the efforts of the Hemp Commission and note that they accomplished this in three months after streamlining the application process by using an online database that the commission opened to the public in September.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announces half a million expungements of low-level cannabis records.
“We will never be able to fully remedy the depth of the damage in communities of color, who have disproportionately shouldered this burden. But we can govern with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past — and the decency to set a better path forward,” Pritzker continued.
