Licensed producer Pathway Health, Corp. (TSXV: PHC) is expanding the reach of its medical cannabis referral system to include Metro- and Food Basics-branded pharmacies across Ontario.
In a statement Tuesday, the company said it signed a deal with Metro Ontario Pharmacies Limited, a subsidiary of grocer Metro Inc., to implement Pathway’s medical cannabis system.
Like its deal with Sobeys, Pathway will provide medical cannabis training for Metro and Food basics pharmacists. The firm says the accredited program “meets or exceeds” education standards set by Ontarian and Canadian pharmacy bodies, and is approved for all other provinces in a bi-lingual format.
With this agreement, Pathway currently has agreements with more than 2,000 pharmacy locations across Canada, CEO Ken Yoon says in a statement, “where we are assisting pharmacists and pharmacy staff with education and training on medical cannabis, and also by providing access to care for those pharmacy patients that are determined to be good candidates for medical cannabis.
In September, company president Wayne Cockburn says he expects changes are coming to Canadian law that would allow pharmacies to sell pot directly to patients.
Pathway’s training program began with Sobeys stores in Nova Scotia during the summer, and is continuing to roll out to another 425 Sobeys pharmacies across Canada.
Read more: Medical cannabis training for Sobeys pharmacists expands in Maritimes
Read more: Sobeys pharmacists receiving medical cannabis education through Pathway partnership
The firm says it’s also partnered PharmaChoice to implement its medical cannabis system in more than 250 Ontario pharmacies.
Under Pathway’s medical cannabis system, patients can talk to local pharmacists about available treatments. Patients are then connected with their own family doctor or a company healthcare worker for further evaluation. If appropriate, then a patient would be linked to a licensed producer to fill the prescription.
The system allows pharmacists to integrate patients’ medical cannabis records to check for potential conflicts with other medication. It also offers patient assessment tools for the pharmacist including consent forms, marketing material, back-end patient communication, standard operating procedures and additional education.
nick@mugglehead.com
