MONTREAL & CALGARY, Alberta & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knowde Group Inc.™, the decentralized Global Contract Research Organization and hybrid consultancy specializing in cannabis and psychedelic research, announced today that it entered into a Strategic Partnership with LMC Manna Research, the largest network of fully owned and integrated clinical research sites in Canada providing Phase I-IV clinical trial services with a patient database of 1 million+ nationwide.
There is an urgent need for objective, scientifically sound and robust clinical trials to support medicinal cannabis and psychedelics (psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, Ketamine). Psychedelic medicine is a rapidly growing area and could be potential breakthrough therapeutics globally for psychiatric conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction. According to the World Health Organization, around 450 million people currently struggle with mental illness, making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. In Canada, mental health issues affect more than 6.7 million Canadians with one in two experiencing a mental illness by the age of 40.
“We don’t want to see research fall to the wayside as it has for cannabis, both in Canada and globally. We are in a mental health crisis and its critical to ensure that we conduct clinical trials to demonstrate safety, and efficacy up to and including phase 3 large scale clinical trials. Knowde Group’s mandate is to provide full support to help with these efforts,” said Sabrina Ramkellawan, COO Knowde Group Inc.
This strategic partnership will enable the conduct of clinical trials with cannabis and psychedelics to accelerate research combining the expertise of Knowde Group with the Phase 1-4 clinical trial proficiency of LMC Manna’s multiple research sites across Canada. LMC Manna Research is also part of hyperCORE International, which has access to more than 100 award winning research sites across two continents making them the second largest clinical research site organization globally. This partnership is in line with Knowde Group’s strategy of building a world-leading research organization in the area of plant based and progressive medicine (Psychedelics, Natural Health Products, Supplements). This collaboration will help to accelerate and advance research in the following ways:
- Strategic advisory to ensure that companies have the right clinical research program, regulatory pathway and partners.
- Provide strategic recruitment that incorporates a diverse population (diversity is currently lacking in psychedelic research to date) with a database of 1 million+ patients in Canada and 15 million+ globally.
- Extensive early phase experience with appropriate safety oversight and early phase clinic
- Therapeutic areas include psychiatry, pain management, neurology, dermatology, smoking cessation and community-based oncology research.
Karri Venn, President LMC Manna Research and CEO hyperCORE International said: “As we witness the climate of cannabis and psychedelic clinical research grow at an accelerated pace, we feel the strategic partnership between LMC Manna Research and Knowde Groupe Inc is timely. We are delighted to partner with Knowde Group Inc and offer our clients access to expert trialists in pharmaceutical based clinical research that will translate well into the plant based and progressive medicines space. Collectively, between the two organizations we offer a full-service package from protocol development to timely and successful clinical trial execution.”
Jaspreet Grewal, CEO of Knowde Group Inc, said: “This strategic partnership is an important step towards helping companies advance research in plant based and progressive medicines. We see a number of cannabis and psychedelic companies that are naïve to clinical research and do not know how to select the appropriate sites to work with and lack the SOPs and processes for selecting partnerships with the right organizations to ensure the success of their clinical trials.”
About Knowde Group: www.knowdegroup.com
Knowde Group ™, Inc is a Canadian-based, female founded global contract research organisation (CRO) and hybrid consultancy dedicated to the advancement of Plant-Based and Progressive Therapeutics ™. As a decentralized CRO, Knowde Group ™ can engage and manage clinical trials around the globe. As a consultancy, Knowde has the agility to adapt to the needs of their clients. As a catalyst, Knowde Group™ embraces the shifting paradigm of treatment protocols and pharmaceutical applications of medicinal cannabis, psychedelics, natural health products, supplements, food products and the use of artificial intelligence for drug discovery through to human trials. In addition to providing clinical trial support, Knowde Group™ is a provider of accredited continuing medical education and providing its clients with a strategic pathway to commercialisation.
About LMC Manna Research: www.lmcmannaresearch.com
LMC Manna Research is the largest network of fully-owned and integrated outpatient clinical research sites in Canada providing phase 1-4 clinical trial services with 23 research sites across 3 provinces. LMC Manna has more than 25 years of clinical research experience having worked on more than 2000 clinical trials in over 30 therapeutic indications. They take pride in their fully centralized model where all sites share the same SOPs, one point of contact for budgets and contracts, regulatory, quality assurance and a sophisticated, state of the art patient marketing and recruitment team.
About hyperCORE International: www.hypercoreinternational.com
hyperCORE International is a super network of highly experienced and awarded clinical trial sites working together to accelerate and advance clinical research. Each member operates as an independent company but integrates common functions to streamline business and clinical operations through harmonization and sharing of best practices. Currently, hyperCORE International is comprised of 11 alliance partners with over 100 sites spanning 2 continents and 5 countries.
For business development inquiries or partnership opportunities please contact: Ming Bérubé-Sam. Director, Business Development at info@knowdegroup.com.
