Tikun Olam Announces Its First U.S. Partnership

SAFED, Israel, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Tikun Olam^® Ltd., the first, largest and foremost government-licensed producer of medical cannabis in the State of Israel has announced a joint partnership in New York State with Compassionate Care Center of New York^TM (CCCNY^TM), a leading privately held New York-based biopharmaceutical company applying to be a Registered Organization under New York's Compassionate Care Act, and MedReleaf Corp., a privately held federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis in Canada, which has set the gold standard for the industrial production of medical-grade cannabis in North America.

Founded in 2005, Tikun Olam has set the global standard for legal medical cannabis research, production and sales. It is the only large-scale industrial producer of medical cannabis in the State of Israel, supplying one third of qualifying Israeli patients with pharmaceutical-grade products. Tikun Olam has the most extensive patient experience treatment database in the field of medical cannabis with over 10,000 patients being monitored for nearly a decade and the data for the treatment of each patient's ailments recorded along with the efficacy of the different strain variations and dosages administered. It is the only private company to have its proprietary medical strains of specifically-bred cannabis clinically tested on humans and referenced by name in peer-reviewed published articles reporting on the successful trials. In fact, Tikun Olam's strain Erez^® was used in the only completed double-blind-placebo clinical trial on humans for Crohn's disease, which resulted in complete remission for 50 percent of the patients in the cannabis group and 10 percent in the controlled group. 

"We have been waiting for the climate in America to be right for us to enter the marketplace with pharmaceutical-grade products, and now that New York and other states have taken an FDA-styled extract-only approach, we feel we will have the greatest impact on patient health without the risks associated with a more loosely-regulated system," said Aharon Lutzky, Chief Executive Officer of Tikun Olam. "We spent months of due diligence, research and expense, searching for the right partner in New York, and after meeting with some of the most formidable applicants in the State, we determined the management and leadership team at Compassionate Care Center of New York, which includes the top U.S. researchers in the field, Dr. Donald Abrams, M.D., Dr. Margaret Gedde, M.D., Ph.D., and Dr. Suzanne Sisley, M.D., is by far the most qualified organization to serve New York State patients."

The partnership grants CCCNY an exclusive perpetual license in New York State to Tikun Olam's globally recognized patient treatment database and its proprietary medical cannabis strains developed during nearly a decade of rigorous testing in Israel. Tikun Olam's Israeli team of master growers, horticulture and quality assurance experts, will be on the ground with its Canadian counterparts at CCCNY's manufacturing facility, Newark Greenhouse, a turnkey currently operating 10-acre greenhouse in Newark, NY, to ensure that CCCNY will be the first Registered Organization in New York State to have pharmaceutical-grade products available to qualifying patients.

"The peer-reviewed patient data collected by Tikun Olam and the company's proprietary chemical analysis of its strains will serve as the pharmaceutical backbone for Compassionate Care Center of New York's offerings," said Dr. Larry I. Good, M.D., F.A.C.G., Chief Executive Officer of CCCNY. "We will educate New York State physicians on the different available cannabinoid-based therapies and the medically approved dosing regimen developed in Israel for use in New York."

"Knowing our patients are receiving the exact strains of medical cannabis used in successful, published clinical trials for diseases such as epilepsy, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and neuropathies, has been a critical tool for physicians in Israel and Canada, and continues to give our patients a degree of comfort that our medications do what they are intended to do," said Neil Closner, Chairman of CCCNY and Chief Executive Officer of MedReleaf. "We are thrilled to be partnering again with Tikun Olam in New York and plan to duplicate the strict medical standards we deploy in Canada."

CCCNY has exclusive perpetual licenses in New York State to two of the three globally recognized and most effective high Cannabidiol (CBD) strains of medical cannabis for pediatric epilepsy – Avidekel^® and Haleigh's Hope^TM, which were the first medical-grade CBD oils available to treat certified patients in both Israel and the U.S., respectively. Through years of genetic modification and research, these strains have been bred to contain the most optimal levels and ratios of CBD to THC to successfully treat refractory seizures, as well as addressing all forms of epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

"We look forward to empowering New York patients suffering from specific illnesses to get access to not only the best quality and most researched medical cannabis in the world, but also the most extensive medical cannabis treatment database available," said Tzahi Cohen, Founder of Tikun Olam.

Tikun Olam
Tikun Olam^® Ltd. is the first, largest and foremost supplier of medical Cannabis in Israel and is one of leading medical cannabis companies in the world. The company is the flag bearer and pioneer of the treatment of patients with medical cannabis in Israel. It is privately held and has been operating under license from the Israel Ministry of Health for nearly a decade providing unparalleled treatment alternatives through the development of industry-leading professional standards for treating patients with the highest quality pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis available. Tikun Olam dedicates a lot of time and resources into examining the efficiency and safety of its products: through constant follow-up with patients, laboratory studies, both in-vitro and in-vivo, retrospective studies, surveys and clinical interventional research. The company currently has over 20 on-going clinical trials in Israel.

Compassionate Care Center of New York
Compassionate Care Center of New York^TM (CCCNY^TM) is a leading privately held New York-based biopharmaceutical company, which has exclusively partnered in New York State with Tikun Olam and MedReleaf, the leading Israeli and Canadian medical cannabis companies, to apply to be a Registered Organization under New York's Compassionate Care Act. Along with these partnerships come exclusive perpetual licenses in New York State to all of Tikun Olam's and MedReleaf's proprietary genetics, expertise, technology, cultivation techniques, patient databases and talent, including Tikun Olam's 10,000 patient treatment database and its clinically tested and peer-reviewed medical cannabis strains, Avidekel^®, Midnight^® and Erez^®. CCCNY also has an exclusive perpetual license in New York State to Haleigh's Hope™, one of two nationally recognized brands of high CBD medical cannabis oil used to treat pediatric epilepsy, and the first medical-grade CBD oil available in the U.S.

MedReleaf Corp.
MedReleaf^TM is a leading privately held federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis operating under a license from Health Canada. The company operates a 55,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Markham, Ontario, and is currently one of the largest suppliers in the Canadian market. Its leadership team consists of highly skilled and expert professionals have extensive backgrounds in health care management, molecular plant genetics, biotechnology, horticulture, clinical laboratory management and operations. MedReleaf is dedicated to being a leading research and development driven producer of world-class cannabis grown to medical grade standards and to offering the finest range of consistent, premium cannabis products, using superior genetics sourced from around the world.

SOURCE Tikun Olam Ltd.