ODI Pharma: one own position and exclusive supply of raw material for Synoptis Pharma

• Scale. 1 strain in the list, in 2 pharmaceutical positions.
• Interchangeability. Each of these strains is also supplied by someone else, so a supply break does not have to mean a lack of the name.
• Portfolio profile. Caryophyllene leads, in 1 of 1 strains.
• What is missing. For 1 of 1 strains, the pedigree remains unestablished and we do not add it by similarity of name.

Who is ODI Pharma and where does its raw material come from?

ODI Pharma AB is a Swedish company based in Stockholm, listed on the Spotlight Stock Market and operating since 2018. It does not conduct cultivation itself. On its own website, it states that it does not intend to cultivate raw material and obtains it from partners, whom it does not name here.

The company presents itself as a manufacturer and representative of ready-made cannabis products for pharmaceutical purposes, operating through a network of subsidiaries and partners. This description combines two roles at once: responsibility for the finished product and mediation in trade. There is no cultivation in it, which the company confirms directly in the informational part of its service.

However, one name has been mentioned. In a statement dated November 2, 2020, ODI announced the conclusion of a supply agreement with CC Pharma GmbH, a German subsidiary of Canadian Aphria, for five years and a minimum of 1200 kilograms per year, totaling 6000 kilograms. The agreement gave ODI exclusive rights to sell in Poland an agreed set of products under two brands at once. Earlier, in January 2020, the company reported that Aphria had obtained EU-GMP certification for the production of active substances.

Subsequent ODI materials do not return to any grower name. The Stockholm analytical house Analyst Group writes in its report that the goods come from Canadian Tilray, but this is the analyst’s determination, not a statement from the supplier itself. Tilray sells fourteen strains in Polish pharmacies under its own label, so the same name would then be on both sides of the shelf.

Which strains from ODI Pharma reach Polish pharmacies?

Under its own label, one: Jean Guy. Besides it, our list includes thirteen strains branded by Synoptis Pharma, and Synoptis has been sourcing raw material from only one source, which is ODI, since August 2023. The name on the packaging does not reveal this, as it speaks of responsibility for the position.

ODI’s own position is called Cannabis flos ODI Pharma and reaches pharmacies in ten-gram packages. In our collection of pharmaceutical positions, it is described by one record. The same strain is also supplied by the manufacturer S-LAB under a separate registration name, so one plant corresponds to two different entries in the list.

The table below compares both sides of this arrangement: the only position of ODI and the strains that are signed in pharmacies by Synoptis Pharma. The third column provides the terpene indicated for a given position by the database of pharmaceutical listings from which this cluster is built.

The exclusivity agreement concerns supplies, not labeling, so it is not possible to determine from the packaging which route a specific batch came from. Two strains from this thirteen have a different leading terpene at Synoptis than the one assigned to the entire strain by the list: Frosted Cherry Cookies and Master Kush. The current state of the shelf is led by a list of available strains, and the store category raw material includes products from retail trade and does not mix with the pharmaceutical positions described above.

What does the manufacturer’s name on the pharmacy packaging actually say?

It indicates who is responsible for the registration position, not who grew the plant. The entity on the label reported the product for trade and is responsible for the quality of the batch and for the documentation. The place of cultivation, the name of the grower, and the country of harvest are not part of this name and do not have to appear anywhere on the box.

The case of ODI illustrates this in an extreme form. The company does not have its own plantation, yet its name is on the label of one position because it has taken on the role of responsible for the product. At the same time, the goods it passes on go to pharmacies under the banner of another entity, and no one records this flow on the packaging.

The registration name itself is, in fact, poor. It does not contain the strain name, only the type of raw material, the entity, and the declared contents. The strain name lives only in commercial listings, and these can sometimes be inconsistent. The service weedweek.pl described this position twice: in October 2023 as Bienville, noting that it is a strain previously present on the Polish market as Jean Guy, and in January 2024 as Jean Guy with a note about the same Bienville.

For the reader of the prescription, one thing follows from this. The manufacturer’s name on the box is an address of responsibility, not a certificate of origin. The point of reference for repeatability remains the batch number and the assigned test result.

How does ODI Pharma’s raw material differ from other positions in the pharmacy?

From the outside, nothing verifiable. The differences that can be shown are the name of the entity, the declared content, and the size of the package. The cultivation process and the method of drying are not publicly described either by ODI or by the other manufacturers present in Polish pharmacies. This symmetry is in itself an answer.

The declared content along with its margin remains verifiable. For the ODI position, the manufacturer provides one value, and the permissible deviation reaches one-tenth of it in both directions, giving a range of 18.0-22.0% THC. The S-LAB position with the same strain name declares less and falls within the range of 16.2-19.8% THC. Thus, the same plant on both sides of the shelf is not the same product in terms of declaration.

The rest is promotional material. The statement about sourcing raw material from global industry leaders, which stands on the ODI website, is not a fact: it does not provide either the name of the grower, the country of harvest, or the cultivation method. Similar assurances of the highest quality are used by all suppliers in this market, and none of them can be verified without insight into the batch documentation.

There is also a difference that does not reflect well on either side. The database budcare.pl assigns both positions Jean Guy, that from ODI and that from S-LAB, exactly the same set of four shares, although the declared potency and described genetic type are different in them. The profile is attached to the strain name, not measured for the position. The four numbers that this database provides here sum up to fifty percent, so the denominator remains unknown.

What is known, and what is not known about ODI Pharma’s raw material?

It is known who is responsible for the position, how much THC is declared, and in what packaging the raw material reaches the pharmacy. It is not known who grew it, in which country, and under what conditions. ODI does not publish studies of its own raw material, and no clinical work identifies the raw material by the supplier’s name.

Documentation reveals little more than what is on the box. Each batch is issued a test result, but it goes to wholesalers and pharmacies, not to a public register, so the patient cannot compare two batches of the same position. The category of issuance remains public and uniform for the entire market.

Separately stands what is promotional material. ODI’s declarations about quality and partners from the first league of the industry describe intention, not measurement. Patient reports circulating on forums usually concern the strain name, not the registration position, so they lump together the goods of two different manufacturers, which is most evident with the strain Jean Guy.

Finally, there is something that no one knows except the company: through whose hands the raw material sold under the Synoptis label passes. A statement from August 2023 says that Synoptis sources this raw material exclusively from ODI, while ODI states that it does not cultivate. The last link in this chain has not been publicly disclosed anywhere, and we cannot identify it.

How long does it take for this raw material to take effect and how long does the effect last?

Just like any other cannabis raw material, because the course is determined by the route of administration, not the supplier’s name. Neither for the ODI Pharma position nor for any of the Synoptis positions has a separate study on the time of action been published, so the ranges below describe the method of intake, not this specific product.

The gap between routes of administration is greater than the entire difference between two positions of the same strain. The ranges below diverge by hours, and the declarations of both versions of Jean Guy by several points of content.

The route of administration determines the course more than the strain itself. After vaporization, the substance passes from the lungs to the blood almost immediately, so the first sensations appear after a few minutes, the intensity increases for another ten to thirty minutes, and the whole effect passes within two to four hours. After ingestion, the raw material first passes through the intestine and liver, so the first sensations are waited for from half an hour to two, and the episode lasts six, sometimes eight hours. Hence the most common mistake with oral administration: who thinks after thirty minutes that nothing is happening and takes another dose will receive both doses at once. The above ranges describe the route of administration, not this strain; pharmacokinetic studies for a single cultivar have not been published.

What adverse effects have been reported after ODI Pharma’s raw material?

None specifically for this supplier. Reports are made for a medicinal product with a specific batch number, not for the name of the company that supplied the raw material. For positions branded by Synoptis, the name ODI does not appear in the labeling at all, so there is nothing to associate with it.

For the Polish market, there is no public compilation that breaks down reports by manufacturers, so comparing the ODI position with the position of another supplier of the same strain is not possible even approximately. Reports are directed to a doctor or pharmacist, and formally to the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, and it is the batch number from the packaging that is the decisive information in it.

Reports of adverse effects are collected for a medicinal product with a batch number, not for the strain name, so the following concerns cannabis raw material as a group of raw materials. The most frequently recurring symptoms are dry mouth, red eyes, and increased heart rate. Less frequently described are dizziness upon rapid standing, daytime drowsiness, and temporary worsening of short-term memory, as well as anxiety increasing with the dose. A separate issue is medications taken concurrently, especially sedatives and those affecting coagulation: their assessment requires knowledge of the entire list of preparations, not the description of the plant. We do not provide the frequency of these symptoms numerically, as public compilations for cannabis raw material in Poland do not separate them by individual products.

Frequently asked questions about ODI Pharma

Does ODI Pharma cultivate cannabis?

No. The company states on its own website that it does not intend to cultivate raw material independently and sources it from industry partners, whom it does not name here.

How many positions does ODI Pharma have in Polish pharmacies under its own name?

One, the strain Jean Guy, listed as Cannabis flos ODI Pharma. The same strain also has a second, separate registration position, branded by the manufacturer S-LAB.

Does the raw material sold under the Synoptis Pharma label come from ODI Pharma?

The agreement announced on August 7, 2023 makes ODI the exclusive supplier of cannabis raw material for Synoptis Pharma for five years, with an option to extend for another three and a half years. The labeling of a single package does not confirm or clarify this.

Who owns Synoptis Pharma?

It belongs to the NEUCA group. ODI itself states this in a statement about the agreement, describing the partner as part of the second largest entity in the Polish healthcare sector.

Why is there no grower name on the packaging?

Because the registration name indicates the entity responsible for the position, not the place of cultivation. None of the suppliers present in our list includes the grower in the name of their position.

Are Jean Guy and Bienville the same strain?

According to the weedweek.pl service, yes. It described the same ODI raw material once under the name Bienville, once under the name Jean Guy, each time noting that it refers to the same position. Our list lists it under the name Jean Guy.

Does ODI Pharma publish the results of tests of its raw material?

We have not come across such a publication. The company announces commercial results and information about agreements, while the analytical results of individual batches go to wholesalers and pharmacies, not to a public register.

Cannabis raw material is a pharmaceutical raw material issued only by prescription, in the Rpw category. The material is for informational purposes and does not replace the advice of a doctor or pharmacist. Editorial text: ubucha.