“Growing cannabis is much the same as growing peppers,” says Dr. Tamir Gedo, CEO of Breath of Life Pharma. “The challenge is isolating and purifying its active ingredients,” he says. “Once we master that, the resulting pharmaceuticals will take the global medical marijuana industry to $25 billion.”

Dr. Gedo speaks with the fervor of the converted—which is exactly what he is. An immunologist and biologist with a doctorate in economics, he comes from the traditional pharmaceutical industry. “About two years ago, Israel’s Economics Ministry asked me to do due diligence on BOL Pharma, a veteran agricultural company that had started growing medical cannabis eight years earlier,” he says. “My reaction was: ‘Give me a break! Marijuana is just a placebo!’ But…life is inquiry. Beyond the myths and vested interests, I learned that the herb has unique medical applications.”

Two months later, he was CEO of BOL Pharma. “I accepted because I recognized a legitimate emerging industry of cannabis-based drugs,” he says. While the immunologist and biologist in Dr. Gedo believe in the product, the economist in him sees circumstances that are ripe for its launch. “The global pharmaceutical industry is in decline,” he says. “In the mid-1990s, annual R&D investment was around $2 billion per large company, with each launching one or two new products each year. Today, they invest more than twice that for half the yield.” The simpler drugs have been found, he continues. Next-generation pharmaceuticals will probably be complex and DNA-based. “I don’t expect we’ll see them on the market for at least a decade. These are 10 years that can be filled by cannabis-based drugs.”

Israel has “a huge competitive advantage” in the development of this platform, he asserts. “We’ve been accumulating the knowledge and technology for the 40 years since Raphy Mechoulam began his research, and we have a health minister who’s trying to keep its regulation as liberal as possible.”

Dr. Gedo contrasts this with the situation in the United States, where marijuana remains a schedule-1 drug. “Twenty-eight states have bypassed Congress and legalized marijuana,” he says. “But its prohibition at the federal level means they can only grow and trade it, not do the vital research. It also means that big pharma and cosmetic companies won’t get behind it. And their lack of support signals ‘not kosher.’ ”