Katan Associates International

Huge news! The Buckeye State becomes the 24th in the union to legalize adult use cannabis. 🥳 🎉 I’ve seen some projections putting the state at a whopping $4B a year. Exciting stuff, and more positive momentum for the cannabis industry. Though it’s bad news for Michigan as those BOGO border stores are going to take a HIT.... #ohio

Here are 5 things a Pharma & Cannabis partnership NEEDS to succeed. Any plant-based product looking to enter the traditional drug-development paradigm typically runs into problems. I have led and closed six of these deals in my life. I know the process. It's very challenging. This is what you need. ~~ Issued IP ~~ Preferably composition of matter IP. Very few drugs are partnered without extensive IP. Pharma likes to own something to the exclusion of everyone else. But almost every plant is hard to patent. Why? Most have been in use for years. And they typically have more than one active pharmaceutical ingredient, as in the case of cannabis. ~~ Known mechanism of action ~~ Pharma and the FDA need to know how something works, definitively. Understanding how it works can elucidate what, if any, side effects may occur. Most plants (especially cannabis) have so many things going on, or haven’t been studied enough. ~~Safe repeatable dosing ~~ The holy grail for Pharma is the orally available small molecule. This is the preferred route of administration for most drugs for many reasons. Given we don't know how most plants work, we can't really develop sound dosing methodology. ~~ Synthetic manufacturing AT SCALE ~~ Drug development is very risky and very expensive. To offset those costs, drugs need to be scaled cost-effectively. This usually involves some form of chemical synthesis and industrial manufacturing. If we don’t know what it is or how it works, you can't synthesize and scale it. ~~ FDA approvable claims ~~ FDA approval paves the way for commercialization in the USA, the most lucrative Pharma market. Last time I checked, cannabis was federally ILLEGAL.... So other than GW Pharma (now Jazz Pharmaceuticals), no dice Chicago. — Bending this mysterious and unruly plant to fit Pharma’s rigid rule book is extremely challenging. That being said, GW did it. Who’s next? #biotech #pharma #plantmedicine

I’m starting a podcast. — Entrepreneurship — Investment — Cannabis — Biotech — Brands Think Joe Rogan meets How I Built This. I’m feeling it out and would love to know: 1) Would you listen? 2) Who should be a guest? Tag someone you’d love to hear from in the comments and we’ll see where this leads…

Here’s the top three things I look for in founders of early stage companies. 1. Commitment Is the leader committed to this fully? Does their LinkedIn say that they're the CEO? Is there extenuating familial circumstances that take their time? My rule of thumb is: If I'm investing into a company and you’re the CEO, that should be the only thing you're doing. I've been CEO of three companies. It's like raising six children. I hate it. It's a 100% full-time, thankless job. If you’re going to be successful you better be all in. 2. Personal investment Is your money down on the table as well? Do you have some level of skin in the game? Even a nominal amount? I'm involved in two or three companies that are led by very strong CEO/Chairmen They pretty much write a 20-25% check into any financing their companies do. That's a strong signal of commitment and self belief. 3. I like you   It’s very important that I like the people. The biggest commodity you have is time. I'm very selective about how I choose to invest it. I'm just not gonna work with people that I don't enjoy like. It’s just too difficult and life is too short. — What did I miss? Tell me in the comments.