Nicholas Vita and Michael Abbott aren’t just opening New York City’s first medical marijuana dispensary, they are trying to steer the industry to a more data-focused way of matching patients with the strains of medical marijuana to help their specific conditions.
Located near Union Square in New York City, Columbia Care is collaborating with its famous neighbor, Mount Sinai Hospital, analyzing de-identified patient registry data that Columbia Care has collected from more than 100,000 interactions with patients in the states where it operates. While the first step is a retrospective analysis of this data, in time they hope to work together on clinical studies
One of the most promising areas for research is the substitution of medical marijuana for opioids like OxyContin and Percocet for pain management said Columbia Care's Vita. “68% of our patients with AIDS-related neuropathy have said that medical marijuana has allowed them to stop taking opioid prescription pain killers which can be addictive, cause a variety of harmful side-effects, and -- most critically --are the cause of thousands of overdose deaths per year,” he said. According to research by The Rand Corporation, “states permitting medical marijuana dispensaries experience a relative decrease in opioid addictions and opioid overdose.”
Columbia Care was founded in 2012 and while it currently employs 150 people nationwide, the company expects to grow to about 250 employees in the next six months. The two founders Vita and Abbott are the majority owners and largest investors in the company, and have raised millions in additional private funding. The business is growing rapidly according to Vita and is seeing 7-25% month over month revenue increases in the markets where they operate. The founders have backgrounds in the areas of finance, health care and management in large organizations.
Along with the new sales location in New York City, and a manufacturing facility at the Eastman Kodak Business Park in Rochester, the company operates growing facilities, processing plants and medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington DC and Arizona. It also is preparing to open three more dispensaries in New York State and to launch operations in Massachusetts and Illinois by the end of March. “Our goal is to be the largest player in the medical marijuana sector and provide data for researchers and policy-makers,” said Vita.
Vita and Abbott, who met working at Goldman Sachs, have hired experts in agriculture, sales, production, etc., but none who operated in the marijuana space before it was legal. “We want to set a tone for a political and social conversation where everything in the sector is highly regulated and 100% compliant,” said Vita.
