Roberto Paleco joined us in our “virtual land” to discuss his amazing journey and career as a Medical Researcher/Scientist, Entrepreneur, from Australia, Italian born. He started a company to do research and clinical trials "for hire" to bridge the gap in the Australian medical cannabis industry. Roberto has a passion for nature and chemistry. After years of studying and working in the field as a medical researcher, Roberto decided to work on medical cannabis research entirely, which led him to create ResearchCan. He has a passion for natural medicine, mind-body connection, and chemistry of the body, which made him study different diseases and therapies. He understands that there are people who are suffering and dying that could be helped in different, but simple, ways than the pharma norm.

Roberto mentions the gastrointestinal microbiome. It's something that I just learned about in probably the last five or six years. As someone who was on a bunch of pharmaceuticals, the impact on the gastrointestinal system was significant. And the mind-body connection, I think that's something that while it's taught, it's becoming more prevalent. People are understanding the microbiome and the gut that connects gut/brain connection.

He developed ResearchCan to make a difference. He mentions it was a hard decision to step out and expose his research, but he also acknowledges that he needs to show the public what he is discovering. Roberto stated that, “We understood the necessity of providing medical cannabis industries with the technology to develop products using pharmaceutical enhancement and medical devices.”

Roberto has an extensive and interesting journey in this field. He explained:
“My passion for natural medicine started during my university studies, where I had obtained the medical and pharmaceutical knowledge to create drugs and the understanding of drug interaction with the human body. As a scientist, I always found the chemistry of the body and the pharmaceutical technologies fascinating. In my career, I studied different diseases and therapies to have a bigger vision of medical treatments. I studied topic formulation to treat skin cancer in Ireland. I moved to Sydney to become an expert on inhalation and nasal administration for respiratory conditions. I have participated in a clinical trial in collaboration with UTS, where I remained fascinated by the connection mind-body studying gastrointestinal conditions. In all of these apparently unrelated conditions and others in my advice, medical cannabis can be used as primary therapy or as a combination to help unavailable and sometimes inefficient conventional treatments.”

“I’ve been aware of the potential of medical cannabis for a long time, and I always tried in my career in Academia to make people understand it. However, nowadays, the barrier is still strong. In the years, I saw people suffering and even die from pathologies that could be treated with this plant. Finally, the world looks like realigning about the use of medical cannabis and I hope one day Australia will lead to this change.”

“My personal experience is that the Academia here is not ready for this change and my advice is that medical cannabis companies should invest money in research and developing medical products privately and directly as pharmaceutical companies always did. Australian universities have incredible laboratories and scientists, but at the moment, there are not sufficient government grants to develop cannabis research within the University, and the old bureaucracy around the intellectual property is discouraging the cannabis industry to invest in research. Besides this limitation, there is here in Australia, a market and a business interest in terms of investment and capability. Government legislation around cannabis prohibition is fast-changing, so I think that with a different approach, we can make the difference.”

Roberto explained the development and creation of ResearchCan:
“I created ResearchCan with a group of friends, all experts on formulation development and almost ten years of experience as medical researchers. We understood the necessity of providing medical cannabis industries with the technology to develop products using pharmaceutical enhancement and medical devices. I decided to create an independent group of scientists to detach our company and research from university bureaucracy and pharmaceutical company control, to be able to deliver cost-worthy research and the access to medical technologies to medical cannabis companies. We hope to become the pharmaceutical research and development partner of a medical cannabis company that has our same vision of this unique opportunity.”

“Our vision is to use medical chosen extracts more efficiently delivered to better target conditions using medical products. Having pharmaceutical formulations to deliver cannabis extracts using different administration pathways can increase the use of medical cannabis. The use of available pharmaceutical technologies will allow the reduction of active ingredients required and a real reduction of the therapy cost, improving the bioavailability and efficacy of the drug. Reducing the cost and creating products with high patient compliance is the key to deliver this medicine and to speed up the change in the legislation that is happening worldwide driven by many patients.”

He also has a vision for the future! He states the following:
“Nowadays, we have access to the technology to prove cannabis’ medical efficacy and to create the pharmaceutical products that the market need. The use of in vitro analysis can help to choose appropriate extracts to be used to treat specific diseases and conditions. The in vitro analyses are used to develop a treatment for specific cancer types, to develop a formulation to access the brain efficiently to treat epilepsy seizures and to test cannabis for the treatment of chronic inflammation diseases efficiently. The use of in vitro analysis can help to choose appropriate extracts to be used to treat specific diseases and conditions. The in vitro analyses are used to develop a treatment for specific cancer types, to develop a formulation to access the brain efficiently to treat epilepsy seizures and to test cannabis for the treatment of chronic inflammation diseases efficiently. Furthermore, getting scientific proofs and creating medical formulations is essential to help health professionals to prescribe medical cannabis more safely and efficaciously, opening future access to more diseases. As a group of experts in pharmaceutical formulation delivery, we have been developing prototypes for a nebulizer, a nasal spray formulation and a fast-dissolving sublingual tablet to administer the cannabis extract in different dosages and to better access specific targets. Our plan is to create the knowledge and products needed to give millions of patients an alternative that they need.”

One important aspect mentioned by Roberto is that these prototypes are not standard medical formulations, and that is because it needs to be unique for each individual, their different needs, and the individual’s specific body aspects.

Links to Roberto Paleco:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberto-paleco-66139417a/
https://www.researchcan.com/