MORE THAN MARIJUANA

Prairie Plant Systems Sees Opportunities Beyond Medical Cannabis
Contract

A reputation of any kind, even for a business, is hard to
shake.

And when your company is the only federally licensed medical marijuana
producer in Canada, says Brent Zettl, president and CEO of Prairie
Plant Systems Inc. (PPS), that's the first thing people think of when
they hear the company's name.

But providing cannabis to patients authorized by Health Canada isn't
the Saskatoon company's only focus, even if sales of the CanniMed
herbal treatment account for between 60 and 65 per cent of its
revenue, Zettl says.

"It's kind of like our gateway drug, if I can use that term," he said
in a recent interview. "It's our gateway drug to these other compounds
that we're planning to have produced in plants."

For nearly 10 years, PPS has been producing medical marijuana on a
contract basis for the federal government. Originally grown in the
deep depths of a decommissioned mine in Flin Flon, Man., -- known
unofficially as the Ganja Mine -- PPS moved its legal hydroponic pot
operation out of the town on the Saskatchewan border when the contract
with the mine's owner ended last summer.

PPS is still growing the marijuana for the government, but the
location of the operation must remain confidential under federal
regulations, Zettl said.

Rumour has it the cannabis crop is being grown somewhere in
Saskatchewan -- a theory Zettl cannot comment on. He can say only that
the operation is somewhere in Canada.

"North of the 49th and in between the Atlantic and the Pacific and
Arctic oceans, that's where it is," he said with a smile.

Although the high-profile, legal and still-controversial practice of
growing medical marijuana is what PPS is best known for, Zettl hopes
the distinction will change over time.

"I think a lot of people forget this is a contract we bid on," he said
of the cannabis. "But we had a bigger purpose in mind. . . . Although
it's our reputation at this point, we're trying to change that."

The company, along with the Plant Biotechnology Institute, has
designed a legume to produce a therapeutic enzyme known as adenosine
deaminase, or ADA. The enzyme, Zettl explained, is part of the body's
immune system and is deficient in people with severe combined
immunodeficiency disease (SCIDS) -- a condition often referred to as
bubble boy syndrome.

People with the disease must undergo enzyme replacement therapy, Zettl
said, and at the moment most of the ADA used in the treatment is
purified from cow spleens.

PPS's ADA takes the animal out of the equation.

"We've successfully designed a plant to make that very same enzyme --
except a human form of it -- in the plant," he said. "Now we're at a
point where we're just purifying it enough to see if we can get it to
clinical trial."

The hope is to one day turn the enzyme into medicine for SCIDS
patients, Zettl said, adding PPS is working on isolating three other
enzymes using the plant system.

"It's still a form of agriculture, but it's again where that
convergence of pharmacy and agriculture are combining to produce more
effective medicines," he said.

The cannabis side of the business, he added, has helped PPS move
forward with its therapeutic enzyme studies, with growing conditions,
industry standards and pharmaceutical credibility supporting its
scientific work.

Zettl can see the enzyme development becoming a much more significant
part of the company's business plan.

"I think the market potential for Prairie Plants extends far beyond
medical marijuana into these other areas. We think there's much larger
potential than that," he said.

Meanwhile, the company's environmental division, which helps mining
companies reclaim work sites, continues to operate. So too does PPS's
bio products division -- the segment that started the business back in
1988 -- which sells fruit plants and seed potatoes to farmers.

On the company's mission to "improve" its reputation, Zettl concludes
the enzyme work will help PPS both grow its revenues and create a new
identity. At the same time, he said, the medical marijuana side of the
company's business isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"We're on a mission to produce these other higher-value enzymes in
plants," he said. "It doesn't mean that we're going to ignore the
other side at all."