AlphaNooner - Dr. Dana Lambert on Andira and the Future of Cannabinoid Healthcare

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Another exciting advisor here is Alpha

Nooner.

Today, we're excited to be joined by Dr.

Dana Lambert,

who is the president and CEO of Endera

Pharmaceuticals.

We're going to spend some time today

talking about why cannabinoids might be

moving beyond dispensaries into areas like

infection control, recovery,

and next-generation healthcare

applications.

Should be a really interesting

conversation.

So if you're out there and joining us

and you have some questions,

put them in early so we can get

to them as we go along,

but should be a great conversation.

So with all that said,

thanks again for joining us, Dana.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.

So as I was talking to you early

before we went live,

kind of funny was reflecting we've had you

on before and it was exactly a year

ago.

So May twenty eight, twenty twenty five,

we had you on talking about the Indira

story.

A great episode.

I'll make sure I share it on social

afterwards so people can get that more

in-depth story of Indira.

But to start,

kind of can you tell us sort of

the high level story for Indira today for

people who are joining?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's very exciting times for our

company moving forward.

We're actually advancing our lead

technology into clinical trials.

We're looking at applications in very

serious hospital infections and chronic

wounds.

So we're advancing into clinical trials

treating diabetic ulcer wounds and

non-healing surgical wounds.

So it's very busy times and also super

exciting.

Yeah,

really exciting and interesting work,

I think.

I feel like there's a kind of an

element where a lot of people will hear

cannabis or cannabis medicine and

cannabinoids and immediately think of

dispensaries and kind of more the consumer

product side of things.

You know,

how big is the opportunity in that sort

of wellness and like you're saying,

those antimicrobial sort of opportunities

becoming?

Well, I mean,

if we're just looking at our technology as

it stands,

we're looking at over forty billion in

addressable markets for applications and

hospital infection, chronic wounds,

many resistant infections.

I mean,

we can go into kind of the developments

and what our research shows a bit later

on, but it's a massive opportunity.

Diabetic ulcers alone

a seven billion dollar market,

only one FDA approved therapy.

And it has a black box warning for

increasing the risk of cancer.

So we're looking at a market that is

massively underserved and we believe that

our technology is a highly promising

candidate to help these people.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

I do think as we're seeing all this

momentum build around cannabis as

medicine, I think, again,

a lot of people are seeing it only

from one perspective.

And I think taking the Endera perspective

of how kind of widespread the applications

can be is really interesting and something

that people shouldn't overlook ultimately.

So I know we'll dig into kind of

some of the pipeline and some of the

studies that you guys have put out lately,

but did just want to talk about very

briefly, of course,

on the US side of the border,

we did see schedule three now for medical

cannabis, you know,

would love to hear one,

your kind of take on it.

And two,

does it have any impact in terms of,

you know,

how you're viewing the opportunity today?

Yeah, absolutely.

And I really applaud the US administration

for taking these steps.

I think it's been a long time coming.

I think a lot of people are highly

supportive of this.

It makes so much sense.

It's going to help the industry in so

many ways.

But what it really does, in my view,

is just validates this plant as a source

of healing and highlights that we really

need to be viewing this not as something

that has no medicinal value and is

potentially dangerous,

into something that can truly be a

therapeutic.

So really applaud what's happening in the

US.

It's fantastic.

It's a huge shift,

huge step in the right direction.

And I think if we touched on a

little bit

As we touched on a little bit before

the conversation,

if we could just contrast that with the

situation in Canada,

I personally think that it's important for

viewers to know the situation and kind of

the differences that are happening on both

sides of the border.

Yeah,

tell us about it a little bit more

in terms of that contrast,

because we were talking about it before,

but I think it's important for people to

understand and know.

Yeah.

So, I mean, as you know,

Andeera is headquartered in Vancouver,

Canada.

We're a fully registered Canadian-based

company.

However,

most of our key suppliers and research

contracts are based in the US.

We do a lot of research and development

in Vancouver, in Canada,

with

leading universities and research

hospitals, University of BC,

Vancouver Coastal Health Research

Institute.

But the administrative burden for us being

able to do research has been, frankly,

it's been antagonistic to research.

And I think what a lot of people

believe when they think about Canada is

that we're ahead of the curve,

that we've adopted cannabis,

it's legal and very few restrictions or

issues.

Well, that's just not the case.

When it comes to consumer use,

medicinal use of cannabis,

it's readily available through licensed

dispensaries,

through Health Canada approved suppliers

and manufacturers,

and that really serves Canadians.

However,

If you should want to do research with

cannabinoids,

the amount of licensing and burden,

it's actually quite antagonistic.

You have to get a research license

approved.

You can't just say we're handling a

substance that falls into bucket or

schedule X.

Canada's established completely different

regulations for cannabis,

and that includes cannabinoids or pure

research compounds.

According to Canada,

that fits the definition of cannabis.

So we don't regulate it as a drug.

We regulate it as a plant.

And to do research,

you have to get a research license.

It can take months and you're not allowed

to just have have a site licensed.

You have to get a individual research

protocol approved.

So you have to get each experiment

essentially approved.

which can take months.

Then if you want to order cannabinoids to

do the research, import permits.

Our team has had to interface with

Canadian Border Services Agency and

scientifically justify why we're wanting

to order these compounds,

all the while

any Canadian is free to go into a

dispensary and buy highly concentrated

forms of THC, cannabis.

So to be frank,

I believe that the Canadian regulations

need a serious upgrade.

And I think they honestly should look to

the US when it comes to research.

Yeah,

so just a lot of red tape that

really slows things down and gums up the

work,

it seems like in terms of actually making

that research progress.

Do you think that because the US is

kind of turning on in this way that

that will influence Canada in terms of

easing those restrictions,

but easing sort of the red tape around,

you know, actually getting research done?

Or do you think that doesn't change?

Honestly,

I certainly hope that Canadian

administration just takes a step back and

looks at the impact that the current

regulations have on companies like Andeira

that are wanting to develop therapeutics

and legitimately need access to these

compounds to do research.

maybe just, you know,

remove a few layers of restriction would

be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, fair enough.

I do hope that's also sort of an

interesting learning lesson for new

markets that are coming online to,

you know, allow for research,

looking to Europe and other places.

Hopefully they are able to adopt.

It sounds like more of the U.S.

model than the Canadian model.

That's really interesting.

I think that's a perspective that people

don't really know much about, I think,

in general.

So really interesting.

All right.

Well,

then I'd love to cover kind of what

you guys have been working on.

I, you know,

one of the things that I think really

caught my attention was a relatively

recent peer reviewed paper that you guys

had come out with or study that you

guys had come out with.

You know,

what can you tell us about what that

was?

I think you released it late April,

I want to say.

What can you tell us about what that

is, the implications, the impact?

I'd love to hear about that more.

Yeah, absolutely.

So our paper on our technology, Sylvanex,

was published in the Oxford Journal of

Applied Microbiology,

one of the leading global journals in new

technologies in the antimicrobial space.

So what this did is it actually presented

our results and our findings on how this

triple combination,

including antimicrobial silver combined in

combination with CBC and CBG is number

one, synergistic, fully bactericidal.

prevents resistance.

It also reduces the toxicity of silver and

it boosts wound healing cells.

So there was a lot of data,

a lot of results.

We're very proud of it.

It's truly a landmark publication and

major validation for the technology.

It also demonstrates that this technology

can help with quite a number of different

applications throughout healthcare and

also more broadly in industrial uses.

And the reason I say that is because

this paper showed very clearly that

Silvan-X clears biofilms.

Now,

biofilms are essentially a slime that

infectious pathogens make to protect them

from being killed.

They don't just affect chronic wounds.

They're also leading to fouling on ships

in the US Navy, for example.

So any technology that has biofilm

clearing properties,

suddenly that opens up applications

within healthcare and outside of

healthcare.

So as a company,

we're strictly focused on advancing

SylvanX for healthcare applications,

diabetic ulcer wounds,

as well as surgical wounds.

But we are actively talking with other

organizations around the world

that are going, hey,

can we use this to prevent mold or

fouling on plants, on cannabis crops?

Can we use this for applications XYZ?

So we are actively looking at partnerships

and uses for the technology that are

non-competitive and outside the scope of

our therapeutic development.

Really interesting.

So diverse applications there.

Out of curiosity,

I feel like when we talked about SylvanX

last year,

I feel like a lot of it was

focused on the application,

obviously on the medical side of things

and how impactful that can be.

When did the industrial kind of story or

opportunity, I guess,

kind of come to light or how did

you guys open that up?

I'd love to know.

In December.

Okay, very recently, okay.

Very recently, McKinsey,

one of our primary research sites based at

the Vancouver Coastal Health Research

Institute,

one of the leading labs in the field,

got very clear definitive data showing

that Silvan-X actually clears biofilms and

not just one type of biofilm,

we show that it clears biofilms from the

two major and most problematic bacterial

causes of biofilms.

So the data are not subtle.

We compared the effect head to head with

existing antimicrobials that do have some

ability to clear biofilms.

We showed Silvan-X blew that out of the

water, essentially.

So extremely exciting.

So antimicrobial silver on its own has

sort of mediocre to very low ability to

clear biofilms.

On the other hand,

in synergistic triple combination,

as Sylvanex,

huge biofilm clearing properties.

We're talking MRSA biofilms being cleared

by over a ninety percent,

which is almost unheard of.

Really interesting.

I can't wait till we talk in about

a year and there's another application

that you guys can open up for SylvanX.

Really interesting.

All right, well then,

so for people who are following the story

and kind of the work you're doing,

which again seems to be expanding

constantly, which is great, you know,

what should people be keeping an eye on

when it comes to Indira?

You know,

what has you most excited about kind of

in the coming months?

Yeah, so for us as a company,

we're actually about to undergo one of the

strongest periods of growth that companies

in our sector tend to see,

which is transitioning from preclinical

development into clinical stage

development.

So we are advancing Silvanex into two

clinical trials.

So these are not just phase one trials

that are, you know,

applying the drug and looking at safety.

These are phase one to a trials where

we will be evaluating safety,

tolerability,

and efficacy in diabetic ulcers and

surgical wounds.

So we're extremely excited about that.

Really interesting.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry.

The other thing I just want to add

that has me most excited is that,

and what I think is really important for

viewers to understand is that Silvinex is

not just an antimicrobial.

Our data shows that it reduces the chronic

inflammation and stimulates wound healing.

And as far as existing therapies go,

there's essentially nothing available that

can do this.

Diabetics and chronic wound sufferers need

something that can clear biofilms and

stimulate their wounds to heal.

Our data and other independent published

data shows that the ingredients in

Silvanex, specifically CBC and CBG,

do just that.

So we're extremely excited to record

safety and efficacy in the clinic.

Yeah,

I think really interesting and very

excited to see kind of what comes next

for the Endera story.

I think there's a lot of focus,

of course, for cannabis broadly, you know,

really having,

picking up some momentum kind of probably

across categories,

whether you're even looking at adult use,

but obviously in medical,

but then I think this specific form of

kind of

uh medical applications um really really

interesting or industrial applications

which is um you know really fascinating

excited to see kind of where the story

goes for people who want to kind of

get a better sense of you know uh

updates follow along with the story where

would you point them um go to our

website andira.ca you can also follow us

on linkedin and twitter

That's fantastic.

All right.

Well,

then thanks so much for taking the time,

Dr. Dana.

Really appreciate it.

It's a really interesting story and

looking forward to hopefully next year

having you tune in and let us know

what the next updates are because it's a

very exciting story.

Thank you so much, Mackenzie.

Thanks so much, everyone.

We'll catch you next time.

Thanks.

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