Israel develops revolutionary medical marijuana inhaler

Posted  by Eliyokim Cohen

A first-in-class pocket-sized metered-dose cannabis inhaler helps patients and doctors control, monitor and fine-tune dosages

As medical marijuana debates heat up across the globe, a government-backed Israeli startup has developed the first device of its kind to administer cannabis as a pharmaceutical.

Unlike the current methods — smoking joints, imbibing oil, rubbing in a salve or eating laced brownies — this medical device enables the patient to inhale metered doses of vaporized cannabis granules.

The Syqe Inhaler is the brainchild of Perry Davidson, an entrepreneur who was instrumental in launching the Israeli Health Ministry’s Medical Cannabis Program in 2007, for the treatment of chronic nausea, pain and other conditions. Some 20,000 Israelis today take doctor-prescribed cannabis, and Israel is at the forefront of research and development in this field.

Pilot testing of the inhaler will start in hospitals around the country by the end of 2014. A home version of the device is expected to go on the market sometime in 2015.

Davidson formed Syqe Medical – a homophone of the word “psyche” — to tackle some of the problems surrounding the use of this controlled substance as a mainstream drug. He sought a scientific way to separate marijuana’s stigma as an illicit recreational drug from its proven health benefits.

“As early as the 1990s, cannabis has been shown to alleviate the symptoms of cancer treatments on young children,” Davidson told ISRAEL21c at the company’s offices in Jaffa, home to a 20-strong staff of physicians, pharmacologists, chemists, biologists and engineers. “But it was discontinued, due to the negative associations it elicited. And this is a shame that I thought needed to be rectified.”

Just the right amount

One of the problems with administering cannabis, he explained, is that “physicians have been unable to control, monitor or fine-tune dosages. And patients who wish to alleviate their symptoms without being too inebriated to function properly have a tough time reaching the right amount.”

According to CEO Davidson and his partner and general manager James Amihood, the Syqe Inhaler will eliminate this problem, as well as make it more difficult to resell the product on the black market. Their goal is for the pocket-sized device to serve in the future as a platform for administering other medications, too.