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Amnon Kritzman Kadron
CEO and Founder
CanDapi LTD
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO Magazine
Published – May 6, 20024
CEOCFO: Mr. Kritzman, what is the concept behind CanDapi?
Mr. Kritzman: The new single dose multi use CanDapi Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) is operated using high-
With our technology we have solved the issues of low efficiency and the complicated user instructions of the current delivering medications to the lung, first of all for users of inhalers for COPD and asthma. However, the most important thing is that it can be used for new pharmaceuticals. These are biopharmaceuticals that are very expensive at a range of $500 to $2000 per dose. Therefore, they cannot afford to lose 50% or 60% of the dose without any control when they give it to very sick patients. Usually, these medications are for cancer and genetic problems. This is our main target today.
CEOCFO: What is the science behind it?
Mr. Kritzman: We are the only company today that knows how to transform a cannabis oil to powder with our company Cannasoul. We are able to extract the API, the active ingredients. In addition, we are going to have the safest device for delivering cannabinoids to the lung in the form of powder instead of vaping, and cigarette smoking that carries a lot of warning by the FDA for users of this type of inhalation or users of cannabis. I am talking about medical or wellness cannabis. I am not talking about recreational use. These are our main targets, delivering new expensive biopharmaceutics drugs with the highest known efficiency and replacing harmful cannabis vapes and cigarettes with a safer way by using our unique technologies.
The other important thing about our technology is that it is the only one that you do not need any instructions to use. For example, with the asthma inhalers they are not for young children or very sick people. We have a device that when you inhale, it operates automatically and when you exhale it stops operation (a breathing through device) so that you do not need any instructions on how to use it and you get 90% of the medication directly to the lung or in other applications with our accessory, directly through the nose.
CEOCFO: How did you come up with this technology? Where did the idea originate?
Mr. Kritzman: How did I come to this idea? Very simple, I have been in the field of medical devices for tens of years. I established several companies and all of the companies I established are based on looking at my family and what patients really need with current technologies, what is missing. Regarding the inhaler, I had an asthmatic child in my family that was hard to help with the current inhalers when suffering from an asthma attack. I told myself that this is not the way to deliver medication. Medication should be very accurate, easy, and safe.
I have a professor friend in the aeronautical department and I asked him how we could modify the device. What we did was we changed the whole idea of inhalation with the device by what we called the VibraMesh™. We take the powder under the mesh and we vibrate it under high frequency when the patient inhales and it releases in a stream directly to the lung without losing any medication in the mouth and stop the operation during exhalation.
You can do this without any instruction. You can give it to a baby as a pacifier and let the baby breathe through the device. The baby will get 50% or 70%, but that is more than any other solution today.
CEOCFO: You talked about cannabis in the medical area. Is the medical community onboard and is there a lot of education for them to understand the benefits?
Mr. Kritzman: We are talking about three real benefits for cannabis although we are targeting to other medication like biopharmaceutics and lung disease drugs. The three basic benefits are, efficient, instructions-
Our inhaler does not look like any other inhaler but it does what others do not. The most important thing is to give the medication in a very efficient way because you cannot take an overdose and you cannot miss the amount of dose that the patient should get. Secondly, there is an economic effect. If you read some articles, because of the over-
The new issue is that people are developing new biopharmaceutical drugs, which are based on DNA, RNA, peptides, and other biological substances. With these drugs you must give the patient an accurate dose; you cannot under-
CEOCFO: Where are you in development and commercialization?
Mr. Kritzman: I started this product six or seven years ago and then I had a problem raising money, so I started a new company. I then went back to this development two years ago and now we are in production of thousands of units which will be ready for clinical evaluations for the pharma companies. The reason that we have collaborations, is that only the producer of the pharmaceutical can ask for clinical studies and go to the route of FDA approval. We cannot make clinical studies without collaboration with a pharma company. There is no regulation yet with cannabis so we just have to show the safety of the device and the cannabinoids new powder to prove that it is much safer than vaping or cigarettes. We hope for distribution in the US as well by collaboration with cannabis products distributers.
CEOCFO: Are you seeking funding or investment at this point?
Mr. Kritzman: Until now our funding has come from are two sources. One is the Israeli Innovation Authority, and most of the money I got from them, as it was approved by them. I also got matching fund form the CanNegev incubator by their investors group like OurCrowd (online global venture investing platform) and from a leading Israeli pharmaceutical company. We are ending the two years period in the incubator and I am working very hard, with most of my time focused on finding new investment for the company. I am currently looking for about $2 million, which is the amount we need for establishing the production line and to go to market with the pharmaceutical companies.
CEOCFO: Are people hesitant to invest in Israel because of the current events?
Mr. Kritzman: Before the war, the forming of the new government affected getting investments from abroad, as well as here in Israel. Now with the war, it is much harder. However, I am getting some good responses and my idea is to collaborate with international companies and probably work with them abroad because of the situation. Because of the new government, it completely changed the whole idea of the democracy of Israel and what I think about that government, I am not ashamed.
CEOCFO: There are so many new ideas in the medical arena particularly; why should investors and the healthcare community pay attention to CanDapi?
Mr. Kritzman: We are talking about three huge markets. If you are talking about new drugs or biopharmaceuticals, the current market today is $14 billion and by 2030 it is going to be $43 billion. The current lung disease market is $54 billion. The medical world of cannabis today is about $6 billion and it is going to be $18 billion in a few years. You are talking about huge markets, and these markets do not have the kind of solutions that CanDapi has. Therefore, when I make my financial statements for the next years, to be in the range of up to $100 million in five years, I need about 0.2% of each market and I believe that this is not going to be very difficult to achieve. This is what I am trying to convince new investors of and with some of them, I have already had discussions.
CanDapi | Cannabinoid Drug Delivery System | Drug Delivery System Cannabinoid | Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery System | Amnon Kritzman Kadron | Solving the Drug Deliver Problems of Efficiency, Safety and Ease of Use for Cannabinoids and Biopharmaceuticals with Their Revolutionary Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) | Dry Powder Inhaler Device