Certain Gaps With Cannabis In GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH) Leads It To Be Treated As Agricultural Commodity

Boston, MA, 08/12/2014 (medicalmarijuanareporter) – The Cannabis and marijuana industry looks bright and shows lot of future scope though it’s quite controversial too. There is general opinion that is developing these days regarding OTC markets is that pot stocks should be treated as an investment towards agricultural investment rather than treating it as a biotech stock. This opine comes into picture after recent controversy between GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH) and Insys (NASDAQ:INSY) which are competing against each other to develop first cannabidiol formulation, approved by FDA.

Their progress is reflective in their share prices. Insys has shown 528% of growth in its stock price while GW Pharma’s stock got 868% of growth in its stock price, since both companies IPO came into the market in the year.

Insys Better Off

Insys financial statement looks more promising as company is in profitable state. Its revenue jumped to $40 million from $15 million, within the quarter itself in the year 2012. On the other hand, GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH) has never received any profit till date due to high expenses in the development of the drug. Infact, no profit can be expected for next ten years until some other story or factor turns company’s future financial growth into positive direction. GW pharma is in news mainly for some hype, projection and excitement on the approval by FDA for Epidiolex.

Why Agriculture Commodity?

The basic reason for Insys (NASDAQ:INSY) success is the use of Fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid and not a cannabinoid while GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH) is completely dependent on cannabinoid compound like Sativex for development of its drug. Cannabinoids expense of development and getting approval from FDA is very high. Same cannot be patented in simple manner. With relaxations in regulations of medical marijuana to use it in both medical and recreational form by increasing number of states, cannabinoid compounds will stop appearing appealing to pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, Cannabinoids needs to be considered as agricultural commodities for medicinal use rather than a biotech product for investment purpose.