Kanabo Group has linked up with City Dock Pharmacy in London, to introduce a walk-in pain clinic offering specialised medicines, including medicinal cannabis.

The partnership will cater for patients who are eligible for alternative therapies, as traditional treatments have not delivered improvements.

The facility, which will be situated at City Dock Pharmacy in Wapping, will deliver both walk-in and appointment-related services, and becomes the UK’s first walk-in clinic for pain management. The clinic will represent an extension of Kanabo’s ‘Treat It’ online platform; allowing onsite pharmacists will also be able to guide patients through the medicinal cannabis treatment options.

Meanwhile, the clinic will also support the unrolling of personalised plans for the growing number of chronic pain sufferers across the UK. At present, such individuals often face difficulties accessing medical treatments due to long waiting times and affordability.

The latest development is part of Kanabo’s wider ambition to extend its reach into physical pharmacies throughout the UK and the company will now seek to replicate this model across further pharmacies.

Avihu Tamir, Chief Executive Officer at Kanabo, is optimistic about the success of the partnership: “The combination of City Dock Pharmacy’s trusted presence and our expertise in medicinal cannabis paves the way for a new, holistic approach to treating pain and the opportunity to extend this to additional indications.”

ERS Genomics Limited (ERS) – a company formed to provide wider access to foundational CRISPR/Cas9 – and StemSight, a company developing stem cell-based therapies for corneal blindness, have announced a non-exclusive licence agreement.

This agreement allows StemSight access to ERS’ CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio. StemSight is a preclinical biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf cell therapies for critical unmet medical need in corneal blindness.

Led by a team of expert scientists in the area of tissue engineering and stem cells for eye applications, StemSight originated as a spin-out from pluripotent stem cell pioneer Professor Heli Skottman’s laboratory at Tampere University. The company remains at the forefront of innovative research in regenerative therapies of the cornea.

Meanwhile, ERS typically provides licensing to CRISPR/Cas9 technology for companies interested in pursuing its use in their commercial programmes. It currently has 89 patents in over 90 countries.

Dr Laura Koivusalo, CEO at StemSight, explained: “This partnership with ERS Genomics is a significant leap forward for StemSight.”

She added: “By harnessing the remarkable capabilities of CRISPR/Cas9 we will be able to address major challenges of the current allogeneic cell therapies, ultimately bringing us closer to life-changing therapies for patients with currently incurable blindness.”