ISA Scientific, Yissum, Hadasit and KIR to Collaborate

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd. (Yissum), Hadasit Ltd. (Hadasit), and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research (KIR) in the United Kingdom have announced that they have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with ISA Scientific, Inc. for using the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), to treat serious medical conditions, including diabetes, inflammatory diseases (like arthritis, atherosclerosis and ulcerative colitis) and cardiovascular disorders.

The licensed intellectual property is the result of many years of research and collaboration between renowned cannabinoid scientists, Raphael Mechoulam, Professor of medicinal chemistry, and Ruth Gallily, Professor of immunology, both from the Hebrew University; the distinguished immunologist, Professor Sir Marc Feldman, Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology; and prominent physicians and scientists at Hadassah Professors Chaim Lotan and Ronen Durst, and Dr. Lola Weiss.

Yaacov Michlin, Chief Executive Officer of Yissum, stated: “We are very pleased with this business collaboration, which is a result of many years of multi-disciplinary cooperation between distinguished scientists in the field of CBD chemistry and biology, together with leading clinicians and researchers in the area of diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and inflammation diseases. We are confident that ISA Scientific is the right partner to translate these academic accomplishments into CBD treatments that will benefit patients worldwide.”

“ISA Scientific is pleased to be collaborating with Yissum, Hadasit and KIR in making the human therapeutic use of CBD a reality,” said Mark J. Rosenfeld, M.S., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ISA Scientific. “The licensing agreement is very well timed because our Phase 1 clinical trials on dosing and safety are now underway in Israel, and arrangements for Phase 2 trials on treating diabetes and neuropathic pain are in process. It is important to recognize that very little CBD usually gets into the bloodstream when it is taken by mouth, and this inefficiency is a major obstacle to making oral CBD medicines with consistent dosing and reliable therapeutic outcomes. ISA Scientific has uniquely resolved this key problem with proprietary drug delivery technology now being integrated into our clinical trials. Besides maximizing the therapeutic utility of ISA Scientific’s CBD formulations, this technology also helps reduce production costs and thus the price of medicine to patients.”

“The licensed technology encompasses diabetes and other disorders of immense public health relevance, and these are impacting hundreds of millions of people around the world. That there is tremendous demand for alternatives to more successfully treat these diseases is an understatement. What ISA Scientific is doing to make efficient and affordable CBD medicine will prove eminently valuable in that regard.”