Navigator Genomics (NGT) is planning to create the world’s largest DNA database of medical cannabis users to help avoid drug interactions and boost the development of personalized therapies for chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia.
For that purpose, the company will start a Regulation A+ initial public offering, which is intended to streamline fundraising for early stage start-ups based in the U.S. or Canada.
NGT offers saliva swab DNA tests to patients, doctors, and consumers who use or prescribe medical cannabis. The goal is to measure individual genetic responses and find which medicines and cannabinoids — derived from cannabis and acting on cannabinoid receptors — may interact with each other, and also which will be most effective.
A total of 416 prescription medications are currently tested. After approximately one week, a detailed report is provided to consumers and physicians. Besides avoiding interactions, the approach also intends to reduce the number of side effects and the need to try different medications and doses.
The company focuses on therapies prescribed for fibromyalgia, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder and other chronic conditions that may be treated with medical cannabis. NGT’s databases also may help researchers formulate new compounds based on test results, which are stored in secure repositories and HIPAA compliant, according to the company.
Travis Parr, NGT’s CEO, stated in a press release that more than 50% of the people who take both medical cannabis and prescription treatments for chronic conditions experience interactions.
“We make this drug interaction information available in a clear and easy to understand report that benefits patients, doctors, and large health organizations. Personalized, precision medicine, based on an individual’s DNA, is the future of medicine,” Parr said.
Adding that NGT’s data on the interaction between cannabinoids and prescribed medicines “have been rigorously sourced from [the U.S, Food and Drug Administration] and other scientific sources,” he said that the company’s goal in raising capital “is to make our tests more widely available and to more comprehensively cover specific chronic conditions.”
NGT will work with Robert Merrill Fletcher, the founder of the cannabis-focused investment banking firm The Canna Unicorns.
“We look forward to helping NGT become the market leader in the medical cannabis DNA consumer testing space and helping people around the globe,” Fletcher said.