Business
The Company That Got the License to Grow and Sell Weed from the DEA and DOJ Just Raised $20 Million
Biopharmaceutical Research Company got a unicorn license and just raised $20 million
Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC), a Monterey, California-based organization which holds a valid Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) pharmaceutical cannabis license, in Series A funding raised a total of $20 million. Achari Ventures, Argonautic Ventures, AFI Capital Partners, Self Health America, Delta Emerald Ventures, and several distinguished private equities participated in the round, which Intrinsic Capital Partners spearheaded.
As a result, the company will be able to aggressively extend its operations, expand its product line, engage in sponsored research, and carry out its go-to-market plan.
Biopharmaceutical Research Company expanded its research capabilities rapidly, enhanced its cannabis growing business, and created innovative cannabis-derived products in a way that was compliant with federal regulations after obtaining the DEA Schedule I registration in 2021. According to George Hodgin, CEO of BRC, this huge additional financial investment will further improve the company’s ability to grow as an organization while positioning BRC as a market leader.”
In addition to giving BRC the money needed to snowball, Intrinsic also brings a wealth of knowledge about the pharmaceutical industry. George Hodgin added that BRC is incredibly appreciative of the Intrinsic team and all of its collaborators for understanding the significant potential of our project.
BRC was a select few American businesses given a production license by the DEA in 2021 to create safe, dependable, and legal cannabinoids for nationally recognized researchers. BRC has teamed up with university research organizations, such as the University of California-Davis and Washington State University.
According to Intrinsic Managing Partner Howard Goodwin M.D., BRC has precisely the tremendous potential their fund looks for in a firm. Howard added that Intrinsic Capital Partners is excited to work with a firm already in a favorable position because of its unique capacity to comply entirely with the DEA. They are a purpose-driven company with strong management in a high-growth market.
Biopharmaceutical Research Company Team
BRC enters its Series A investment round with a solid and seasoned team and is pleased to announce the addition of PIPV Capital’s Senior Managing Partner and owner of GlaxoSmithKline Ventures, Osagie Imasogie, to its Board of Directors. In addition, BRC welcomes to its Board of Advisors former Chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, Steven Hoffman, and Bob Sheriff, former Global Head of Supply Chain across numerous businesses at Johnson & Johnson. Image and Sheriff are both members of Intrinsic’s extensive operating network.
Hunter Land has been appointed Vice President of Translational Research as the BRC workforce continues to expand. Land formerly worked as a Vice President of Translational Research and Executive Board Member at Alterola Biotech. He has more than 18 years of R&D experience across 15 various indications and 10 years of experience in cannabinoid-focused research. He has created a pipeline of research work on more than 20 novel terpenes and cannabinoids as a specialist in the discipline of cannabinoid science.
About Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC)
Biopharmaceutical Research Company (BRC), led by CEO George Hodgin, is a DEA-registered botanical cannabis enterprise focused on the federally authorized manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and collaborative research and development.
The company aims to provide high-quality, federally authorized pharmaceutical active ingredients for plant-based medicines for researchers and patients worldwide. BRC has recently collaborated with university research institutes such as the University of California-Davis and Washington State University.
They can conduct all botanical API activities because they are a certified, federally authorized cannabis pharmaceutical company. They will also sponsor many researchers’ Investigational New Drug (IND) proposals to pursue cures for chronic pain, PTSD, and other medical conditions.
Intrinsic Capital Partners
Intrinsic Capital Partners is an investment company based in Pennsylvania that specializes in life science and technology companies in the legal hemp and cannabis industries. The Intrinsic team combines institutional investing discipline with world-class operational experience to establish and scale industry-leading firms that address neglected needs throughout the supply chain.
Intrinsic Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm that invests in promising, growing companies in the legal cannabis market. Their team has extensive experience in investing, regulatory, pharmaceutical, and deal structure. They are dedicated to generating value for portfolio business owners while offering excellent returns for our fund investors in collaboration with our world-class ecosystem of operating partners with years of expertise in establishing brands and businesses across the healthcare and consumer industries.
Intrinsic Capital Partners offers an operator-centric investment methodology to build a comprehensive portfolio of top cannabis and hemp companies. North Point Mergers and Acquisitions served as BRC’s private placement agent in the fundraiser, and Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal counsel.
The Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a federal law enforcement organization of the United States Department of Justice tasked with fighting drug trafficking within the USA. It is the primary enforcement agency for the Controlled Substances Act in the United States, sharing concurrent authority with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Immigration. The DEA is primarily in charge of coordinating and prosecuting U.S. drug prosecutions internationally and domestically.
The DEA maintains a registration system that allows anybody to manufacture, export, import, and market Schedule I drugs by submitting DEA form 225. Medical professionals, manufacturers, and researchers have access to “Schedule I” medications and Schedules 2, 3, 4, and 5 if licensed by the DEA. Authorized applicants file for and are awarded a “DEA number.”
A DEA number authorizes an entity to manufacture (drug firms), disseminate, prescribe ( nurse practitioners, pharmacists, doctors, and physician assistants, among others), research, or dispense (pharmacy) a prohibited substance. BRC was a select few American businesses given a production license by the DEA in 2021 to create safe, dependable, and legal cannabinoids for nationally recognized researchers.
Conclusion
With the latest $20M funding, Biopharmaceutical Research Company can rapidly expand its research capabilities, enhance its cannabis growing business, and create innovative cannabis-derived products that comply with federal regulations.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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