Biotech: Medlab lands another clinical trial for its cannabis mouth spray

Medical science company Medlab Clinical (ASX: MDC) is steadily ticking boxes as it seeks regulatory clearance for its medicinal mouth spray product.

The company announced this morning that it has ethics approval to run observational trial for Nanabis, derived from cannabis oil extract.

Shares in Medlab rose almost three per cent in morning trade to 37 cents.

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In its latest trial, Medlab will have approval to monitor how doctors use the product and collect data on patient feedback.

The company wants to take advantage of the local regulatory environment, where the Therapeutic Goods Administration allows for the provision of Special Access Schemes (SAS); the regulated supply of unapproved medical products on a case-by-case basis.

Medlab CEO Sean Hall said the company’s primary focus is then to “publish and use the forthcoming data to bolster all our regulatory efforts as it relates to NanaBis”.

Ultimately, Medlab hopes to use data obtained in the trial to circumvent the currently prohibitive restrictions — across multiple jurisdictions — on the number of prescription patients required before a medicinal cannabis product gains regulatory approval.

The company expects the trial to be implemented for more than 2,000 patients across Australia, thus making it “one of the most significant cannabis trials to date”.

In other ASX biotech news today:

Cancer detection company Bard1 Life Sciences (ASX: BD1) fell sharply after announcing a capital raising. The company said it plans to raise around $7.5m at 2 cents per share to grow the management team and relocate to Australia’s east coast as it tries to move towards commercialisation. BD1 shares closed yesterday at 2.5c, and promptly fell to 2.1c in morning trade.

And medical device company GI Dynamics (ASX:GID), which is developing the Endobarrier product to treat diabetes and obesity, jumped more than 20 per cent to 2.2 cents. The company said Steven Opal, clinical professor of medicine at Brown University in the US, will join its advisory board. It also provided details of this year’s annual meeting and said the board was “still considering the merits” of delisting from the ASX, although it hadn’t yet formed a final view.