Source:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cannabis-genetic-biotech-patents-gmo-1.4854746
Posted: Oct 13, 2018
Investors rush to patent genetically modified cannabis molecules
Critics worry private companies will own genetic building blocks of life.
OrganiGram Inc. in Moncton, N.B. has closed a $10 million investment deal with Hyasynth Biologicals, boosting access to biotechnology that can produce cannabis's active ingredients in a lab without needing a costly grow-op.
At the Hyasynth Biologicals laboratory in Montreal, scientists are working on the latest frontier in the cannabis business: genetically engineering the active ingredients in marijuana and then patenting them.
Hyasynth is part of a new wave of genetic engineering firms across Canada and the U.S., splicing and dicing molecules found in cannabis plants, hoping to create new recreational products and medicines to treat pain, cancers, insomnia, epilepsy and a host of other health problems.
Cannabis producers, biotech firms and drug companies, along with the law firms who represent them, say genetic engineering — a controversial technique pioneered in agriculture — will allow companies to patent genes synthesized from cannabis.
"Companies are using genetic sequences taken from natural cannabis strains, altering them and building a product that will eventually disrupt natural markets in cannabis," said Jim Thomas, a spokesperson for Val-David, Que.-based technology watchdog the ETC Group.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cannabis-genetic-biotech-patents-gmo-1.4854746
Posted: Oct 13, 2018
Investors rush to patent genetically modified cannabis molecules
Critics worry private companies will own genetic building blocks of life.
OrganiGram Inc. in Moncton, N.B. has closed a $10 million investment deal with Hyasynth Biologicals, boosting access to biotechnology that can produce cannabis's active ingredients in a lab without needing a costly grow-op.
At the Hyasynth Biologicals laboratory in Montreal, scientists are working on the latest frontier in the cannabis business: genetically engineering the active ingredients in marijuana and then patenting them.
Hyasynth is part of a new wave of genetic engineering firms across Canada and the U.S., splicing and dicing molecules found in cannabis plants, hoping to create new recreational products and medicines to treat pain, cancers, insomnia, epilepsy and a host of other health problems.
Cannabis producers, biotech firms and drug companies, along with the law firms who represent them, say genetic engineering — a controversial technique pioneered in agriculture — will allow companies to patent genes synthesized from cannabis.
"Companies are using genetic sequences taken from natural cannabis strains, altering them and building a product that will eventually disrupt natural markets in cannabis," said Jim Thomas, a spokesperson for Val-David, Que.-based technology watchdog the ETC Group.