00:00Today on Forbes, this pharma billionaire is developing a cannabis painkiller to replace
00:06dangerous opioids. There is nothing sexy about the next big thing in weed. Vertanical, the
00:13Munich-based pharmaceutical company, is developing a cannabinoid-based extract to treat chronic pain
00:20it hopes will soon become an approved medicine, first in the European Union and eventually in
00:25the United States. The drug, currently called Ver-01, is not for stoners. Each dose is low
00:32enough to avoid getting most patients high, the company says, but it packs enough low levels of
00:37cannabinoids, including THC, to relieve pain. And if it is approved, it won't be found at a cannabis
00:44dispensary either. Instead, Clemens Fisher, the 50-year-old medical doctor who is the founder of
00:51Vertanical, hopes it will become the first cannabis-based painkiller prescribed by physicians
00:56and covered by insurance. Fisher, who stopped practicing medicine decades ago to get an MBA
01:03from Harvard, says, quote, I usually end up with the boring things no one wants to do.
01:09A serial pharmaceutical and supplement entrepreneur, Fisher, who was born in Weilheim, Germany, runs a
01:16mini-empire through the Futru Group, a Munich-based holding company with a collection of about 20 drug
01:21and R&D companies. Over the last two decades, he has built and sold a series of companies in the
01:27over-the-counter drug and supplement space, ranging from sleep aids to treatments for irritable bowel
01:32syndrome, amassing a $1 billion fortune. Although Ver-01 is cannabis-based, Fisher has no interest in
01:41selling marijuana, which he says is a, quote, shiny object to be avoided. The $32 billion in 2024 sales
01:49cannabis industry in the U.S., which spans 40 states, is plagued with banking and financial
01:54challenges due to pot still being illegal at the federal level. The industry is still waiting,
02:00rather impatiently, for President Donald Trump to announce his decision whether to reschedule marijuana
02:06from its current status as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin and LSD to a less restrictive
02:12category. None of that matters for Fisher. He prefers the boring, arduous, and expensive path
02:18of getting a new drug approved by the European Medicines Agency and, hopefully, eventually the
02:24U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So far, Fisher has invested more than $250 million of his own money
02:31in Vertanical, which he founded in 2017 with his business partner, Madlena Hohlefelder.
02:38With a cannabis cultivation site and pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Denmark, Vertanical has
02:43successfully passed Phase 3, the last clinical trial hurdle, in Germany and is currently awaiting
02:49marketing approval. So far, the data from the clinical trials is promising. Ver-01 was found to be more
02:56effective than opioid painkillers with fewer side effects, including no evidence for addiction.
03:02The company is expecting a decision from the German and Austrian authorities later this year or early
03:07next year, which would allow the company to start selling its medicine. Vertanical will then apply for
03:13broader authorization across the EU. It hopes to launch Phase 3 trials in the U.S. in 2026.
03:19The quest for non-opioid pain relievers is hot. After pharmaceutical drugs such as OxyContin fueled the
03:34opioid epidemic in the U.S., medical professionals have been searching for a better option, an effective
03:40pain reliever without the risks of addiction or overdose. Jernovex, a non-opioid drug that dampens the pain
03:47signals sent to the brain, was approved by the FDA for acute pain in January 2025. Vertex, the drug's
03:54manufacturer, reported $13 million in sales for the first six months on the market. Yet with 125
04:01million opioid prescriptions written in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control
04:07and Prevention, a market worth about $20 billion in annual sales, according to Precedence Research,
04:13there is a lot of opportunity for alternatives. And as opioid overdoses claim the lives of more than
04:1980,000 people in the U.S. last year, it is an urgent problem that needs solutions. Earlier this month, the
04:26FDA announced its plan to accelerate the approval of non-opioid drugs for chronic pain. Fisher hopes that
04:33Vertanical can bring its cannabis-based drug to market, replace a portion of those opioid sales, and cash in on the
04:40multi-billion-dollar chronic pain sector. For full coverage, check out Will Yakowitz's piece
04:46on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.
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