FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany, Nov. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Pierre Debs, Ph.D. announced today the launch of Chain Pharmaceuticals GmbH, a phytocannabinoid drug discovery company leveraging machine learning and real world medical data in the development of clinically proven plant-based medicines for market authorization. Bringing together pharmaceutical, medical, cannabis and digital experts, Chain Pharmaceuticals brings a unique platform and process to expedite the process of design and execution of clinical trials for cannabis based molecules, without waiting 10 years and at enormous cost. Chain Pharmaceuticals will release a series of unique and differentiated solventless extract-based products for the current regulations throughout the European Union in the coming year. Chain extracts are designed with a purpose and play an integral role in tracking efficacy and patient usage outcomes.
The Chain Pharmaceuticals ecosystem is driven by five major trends shaping the future of medicine:
- The power of machine learning, artificial intelligence and in silico modeling to expedite and reduce the cost of drug discovery
- The ability of blockchain to facilitate data-gathering and patient engagement
- Harnessing the power of real world, evidence based data in the design of health care therapies
- Increased desire for and expanded use of plant-based pharmaceuticals
- The advances and momentum in personalized medicine as a leading paradigm in health care
“Our core energies are focused on bringing plant-based pharmaceutical products to the market in an expedited time frame with higher efficiencies, less up-front costs, longer-term equitable returns, and in a sustainable manner. Clinically proven market authorized medications are sine qua non for long-term demands of all stake-holders throughout European healthcare systems,” explains Dr. Pierre Debs, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chain Pharmaceuticals GmbH.
Co-Founder and CIO Dr. Pavel Kubů, MD explains, “Decentralized and personalized phytocannabinoid-based healthcare solutions require GDPR compliant, transparent, rapid, targeted data acquisition and analysis. Our HealChain App is the synergistic meeting point for data from real world usage, continually updated cannabis patient usage and a broad palate of machine learning driven resources specifically designed for each subscriber.”
Phytocannabinoids: a unique but challenging resource
Cannabis’ panoply of hundreds of natural pharmaceutical active ingredients makes it a unique resource for research and development. Virtually non-toxic and devoid of serious side effects, in a controlled medical environment, the plant is an ideal starting material for personalized medicines. However, cannabinoid-based drug development has been a challenge as it does not fit neatly into the standard paradigm for market authorization if one considers more than a single molecule for a single medication. Meanwhile, different patients use different whole-cannabis products for the same indication, or the same product for multiple indications. Health care providers need to work with over 200+ varieties of generic cannabis products on the market with relatively little pharmacological justification other than it has THC and seems to work, and only 3 market authorized products.
Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence for modern, rapid drug discovery
Chain Pharmaceuticals will overcome these hurdles and capture the current market opportunities around phytocannabinoids by leveraging machine learning, artificial intelligence and in silico modeling to expedite the design and execution of a portfolio of clinical trials. By rationalizing established anecdotal evidence, utilizing real world data and other inputs to feed a machine learning platform, Chain Pharmaceuticals’ model will drive fast, efficient phytocannabinoid compound identification and the related targetable clinical indications. “We started our discovery pipeline last year, targeting four indications and one bio-medical product, and have progressed through the mid-stages of in silico discovery – once the real world data is infused, we anticipate several exciting outcomes,” said Debs.
Leadership and partnerships in place
Chain Pharmaceuticals’ leadership team has extensive experience in drug development and clinical trials. Dr. Pierre Debs has over twenty years of experience in stem cell research and opened the European market, in particular Germany, for import and distribution licenses for Canadian cannabis flower. Joining Dr. Debs on the Chain Pharmaceuticals’ executive team and as co-founder is medical informatics and addictology expert Dr. Pavel Kubů, MD, formerly of the Intel Corporation and Founding CEO of the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute in Prague; Dr. Martin Votava, MD, Ph.D., a pharmacology, regulatory science and pharmacovigilance expert who has held positions at EMA's scientific committee CHMP, PrimeVigilance and associate professor of pharmacology at Charles University’s Medical school in Prague; Dr. Daniel Smutek, MD, Ph.D., MSc., also of Charles University and the former Senior Medical Director of PAREXEL.
The Company also has powerful strategic partnerships in place, including with Innoplexus AG as its exclusive machine learning/AI provider for rationalizing petabytes of existing scientific and medical data as well as real world usage data in the phytocannabinoid drug discovery process. Chain Pharmaceuticals’ patient data-gathering app, HealChain, is designed with Innoplexus’ app and its capabilities of data extraction with AI algorithms. It will accelerate its own research and insights, and utilize existing research and anecdotal evidence through an established Innoplexus-driven machine learning system custom built for drug discovery that will regularly update, test and refine insights on compounds with a high likelihood of efficacy.
HealChain, which will launch in the coming months, will serve as one of the feeds for the machine learning systems by incentivizing medical cannabis patients to share data for the design of clinical trials with patients owning and licensing their anonymized data. The HealChain app is a joint venture between Chain Pharmaceuticals and Innoplexus, based on the latter’s Curia and Neuria apps.
About Chain Pharmaceuticals GmbH:
Chain Pharmaceuticals GmbH is a German-based drug discovery company using real world data, machine-learning and artificial intelligence to rapidly design and execute clinical trials leading to market-authorized phytocannabinoid products. Founded in 2021, Chain Pharmaceuticals' directive is to be a leader in decentralized and personalized phytocannabinoid-based healthcare solutions through development of an innovative portfolio of plant based-pharmaceutical products. The company’s app, HealChain, employs blockchain technology and tokenization to engage and incentivize patients to share their personal health data while retaining ownership and control. This patient-staked approach and involvement ensures transparency in clinical trial design and execution. To learn more, please visit www.chainpharmaceuticals.com.
About Dr. Pierre Debs
Dr. Debs co-founded MedCann GmbH, a German federally-licensed importer, manufacturer and distributor of medical cannabis products, in 2015, and was the first company in Europe/Germany to import and distribute Canadian medical cannabis flowers. He has over twenty years’ experience in stem cell research, including endocannabinoid system function. Along with his MedCann co-founder, Dr. Debs opened the current medical market in Germany in particular, but with immediate impact throughout Europe; and beat other established companies to obtain the first import license for Canadian flower.
