Health Canada to allow some edible cannabis products starting mid-December

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FILE PHOTO: Cannabis plants fill a room in an aquaponics grow operation by licensed marijuana producer Green Relief in Flamborough, Ontario, Canada January 25, 2019. Picture taken January 25, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

(Reuters) - Health Canada said on Friday that some edible cannabis products, extracts and topicals would be sold in physical or online stores from mid-December.

The amended cannabis regulations will come into force on Oct. 17, the health regulator said, adding that cannabis producers with federal license will need to provide a 60-day notice of their intent to sell new products, as they are currently required to do.

“We think these new product forms are going to accelerate the shift away from black market into the legal market,” said Martin Landry, chief of corporate development & strategy at Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. The Canadian firm specializes in the extraction, purification and formulation of cannabis products.

“They are critical for the legal market to capture a bigger part of the consumer spending,” Landry said.

The amendments will also limit the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance in cannabis that makes people high, to 10 milligrams per serving in cannabis edibles and extracts. For cannabis topicals, the limit will be 1 gram of THC per package.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce said even though the new proposed regulations will allow for the development of a range of products to meet consumer demand, the industry body was disappointed to see that multi-packs for edibles cannot exceed 10 mg of THC per package.

The OCC in a recent report had said it supports a THC limit of 10-mg per discrete unit of edibles, as well as the sale of multi-packs or multiple products up to a maximum of 100-mg of THC per package.

Ontario is home to more than half the licensed producers of recreational cannabis in Canada and a majority of employment.

Last year, Canada became one of the first major economies to legalize recreational marijuana, a move that has led to the creation of a multi-billion dollar industry.

Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Maju Samuel

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Enanta's lung infection therapy succeeds in mid-stage trial

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(Reuters) - Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Friday its treatment for a highly contagious respiratory infection met the main goal of reducing virus levels in the body and improving symptoms in patients in a mid-stage study.

The therapy, EDP-938, developed for treating respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection which currently has no available treatment, was compared with placebo, the company said.

RSV could lead to serious lung infections and even death in babies and the elderly who have a weaker immune system.

An average of 57,527 children younger than 5 years and 177,000 adults older than 65 years are hospitalized due to RSV infections every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Enanta said study results showed its therapy was generally safe and well tolerated and no drug discontinuations were observed.

Drugmakers Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Johnson & Johnson have abandoned their programs to find a treatment for the condition, and an experimental vaccine developed by Novavax Inc had failed a late-stage trial, earlier this year.

Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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