EPISODE #161 Cannabis vs. Opioids with Valentino Parravicini, Chief Scientific Officer at Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies - Show Notes

This week, we’re joined by Valentino Parravicini, Chief Scientific Officer at Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies - British pharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of next-generation prescription cannabinoid medicines.

In this episode, we explore the potential use of cannabis-based medicines as a replacement for prescription opioids, their safety profile, and their use cases as analgesics.

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About Valentino Parravicini

?Valentino has spent his academic career at the NIH (NIAMS-USA) working in allergy and inflammation and discovering a new signalling pathway in mast cells. After moving to the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill (NIMR, now part of the Francis Crick), he focussed on animal models of inflammation and autoimmunity. He has been Visiting Scientist at Imperial College London and King’s College London.?

Valentino has over 12 years of experience in drug discovery and development accrued working in Big Pharma and SMEs. He worked at Roche (Italy), and at the Epigenetic Drug Performance Unit of the Immune-Inflammation Therapeutic Area of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, UK).?

He was also involved in the set-up of two start-up biotechnology companies, first at Kesios Therapeutics (oncology), and the at GammaDelta Therapeutics (cell and gene therapy in oncology), which was recently acquired by Takeda. He has lead research teams and programmes in the fields of immune-inflammation, oncology, and virology, both in small molecules and cell therapy, applied to early research and drug discovery and development.?

He most recently joined Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies as Chief Scientific Officer where he contributed to shaping the cannabinoid-based R&D pipeline and overall scientific strategy leading to the Company’s IPO in May 2021.

Episode Summary

• Valentino has worked in the fields of oncology, inflammation and immunology for over twenty-five years, in both big pharma and biotech.
• He has also worked within national research organisations including the National Institutes for Health in the USA and the Francis Crick Institute.
• Valentino has been interested in cannabinoid therapeutics for many years, but previous positions within big pharma companies meant he did not get the chance to explore the topic any further.?
• As soon as the opportunity to study cannabinoid therapeutics at OCT presented itself, he seized it.
• He is particularly interested in looking at new, innovative ways of approaching problems with inflammation and autoimmunity, and believes that cannabinoids have lots of potential to help treat these symptoms.
• Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies employs the latest scientific techniques to provide more evidence that supports the positive effects of cannabinoids.
• It is their vision to become a global leader in developing cannabinoid-based prescription medication, improving the quality of life for millions of patients
• OCT's primary focus is on the drug development for indications in severe, chronic pain conditions.
• OCT are developing a number of drugs, including proprietary cannabinoid derivatives, natural phytocannabinoids and completely new chemical entities (NCEs), all of which target the endocannabinoid system.
• Opioids act as pain medications, and can come from natural orgin, or be synthesised synthetically.?
• Although they can be used therapeutically, there is a thin line between their beneficial use and overuse, meaning they are easily exploited
• They are best used acutely (for a short period of time) and are not very addictive on a short term basis compared to other drugs such as benzodiazapine
• Each year, 15,000 people in the USA and 2,300 in the UK die due to overdose of prescribed opioids
• Due to the overprescription of opioids for chronic pain, there have been many unnecessary deaths worldwide
• OCT are currently working on therapeutics which combine multiple cannabinoids together within? a single drug, the idea being that this will increase the chances of the drug’s success
• Patient variability needs to be taken into account, which refers to the differing ways people respond to a drug.?
• THC is an analgesic, but it also has psychohtropic effects, whereas CBD is known to have an antiinflammatory effect, and no psychohtropic effects.
• Compared to opioids, and morphine, cannabinoids have an incredible safety record - this has been proven through clinical evidence.

Resources

Join Valentino on Linkedin: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/valentino-parravicini/?originalSubdomain=uk

Follow Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies? on Linkedin: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/oxford-cannabinoid-technologies/

Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Website: https://www.oxcantech.com/

About Me

I'm?Anuj Desai - a commercial advisor, lawyer and founder of Canverse - a strategic consultancy helping founders, entrepreneurs and businesses navigate the emerging cannabis industry.

Please follow?The Cannabis Conversation to keep up to date with news and insights from the industry, and get in touch at [email protected] to discuss how I can help your business move forward in the cannabis sector!

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