Clemens Fischer a Pharma that made billions making cannabis pain killer
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Clemens Fischer has never smoked pot in his life, but he believes his new experimental drug could reap billions in sales—and change millions of lives. Clemens Fischer T here is nothing sexy about the next big thing in weed. Vertanical, the Munich-based pharmaceutical company, is developing a cannabinoid-based extract to treat chronic pain it hopes will soon become an approved medicine, first in the European Union and eventually in the United States. The drug, currently called Ver-01, is not for stoners—each dose is low enough to avoid getting most patients high, the company says, but it packs enough low levels of cannabinoids (including THC) to relieve pain. And if it is approved, it won’t be found at a cannabis dispensary either. Instead, Clemens Fischer, the 50-year-old medical doctor who is the founder of Vertanical, hopes it will become the first cannabis-based painkiller prescribed by physicians and covered by insurance. “I usually end up with the boring th...