What’s the biggest challenge facing the cannabis industry right now, and how are you and/or your company addressing it?
The biggest challenge is translating a naturally variable product category into a repeatable, regulated healthcare supply chain. Demand has developed faster than some of the infrastructure needed to support it: validated analytics, documented stability, dose consistency and dependable supply across markets. At Dunbar Pharma, we started with those systems and built outward. We created a GMP pharmaceutical manufacturing platform in Ireland that produces high-purity, plant-based dronabinol THC API to pharmacopoeial specifications, supported by rigorous process control and analytical data.
I do not see the future as flower versus pharmaceuticals; different patients and clinical pathways require different solutions. The strategic gap is the infrastructure that allows cannabinoids, including stable flower options, to move reliably from molecule to medicine. That is the gap we are building Dunbar to fill. I came into pharmaceutical manufacturing without the traditional background, which may actually have been an advantage: I questioned everything and never accepted that variability was simply part of working with cannabinoids.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
The most exciting opportunity is the evolution from individual cannabis and cannabinoid products into scalable pharmaceutical platforms. A defined active ingredient gives formulators and clinicians a reliable starting point for precise dosage forms, route-specific delivery and carefully designed combination formulations. But the real value is not the molecule alone. It is the process knowledge and dependable pharmaceutical supply capability surrounding it.
We are positioning Dunbar as a specialist European manufacturing and development partner, with dronabinol as our starting point, supporting multiple products, markets and international partners. The companies that successfully combine scientific depth, regulatory discipline and commercial scale will shape the next stage of this industry. What excites me too, is taking a molecule that the market thinks it understands and asking what becomes possible when the manufacturing, formulation and commercial strategy are all done properly – and doing so on the island of Ireland.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Build an asset, not just a brand. The industry has had plenty of noise. What it needs now are people prepared to do the difficult, sometimes unglamorous work that creates lasting value. Visibility can create momentum, but enduring value comes from capabilities that are genuinely difficult to reproduce: validated processes, regulatory permissions, proprietary know-how, strong customer relationships and a team that can perform under inspection. I entered pharmaceutical manufacturing without a traditional industry background, which forced me to think from first principles and surround myself with people who had deep technical expertise. My role was not to pretend to know everything; it was to turn that expertise into a coherent, disciplined and high-performing company. Choose a point in the value chain where a major partner would find it faster, safer and more effective to work with you than to build that capability itself.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
I have learned that confidence is cheap and repeatability is hard. The most important lesson is that growth only becomes valuable when it is repeatable, and that is even more true when it comes to a pharmaceutical product or business. One successful batch, one market launch or one major customer relationship does not yet make a durable business. It becomes a business when the same standard can be reproduced under scrutiny, across different people, countries and points in time.
Regulators, payers, customers and strategic partners are all asking versions of the same question: can this company deliver reliably without compromising quality? That is why we have invested as heavily in systems and experienced pharmaceutical leadership as we have in our physical infrastructure. I don’t believe that rigour or quality is a brake on entrepreneurship. Rather, it converts entrepreneurial energy into enterprise value and makes it possible to scale.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I want Dunbar to be known for building pharmaceutical capability in Ireland that is technically excellent, internationally relevant and built to last. If, years from now, cannabinoid medicines are treated with the same confidence as any other prescription medicine, I will feel that we have played a meaningful part in that.
I do want Dunbar to demonstrate that a founder-led company can move quickly, solve difficult technical problems and still meet the standards expected of an established pharmaceutical manufacturer. If all goes to plan, we will have helped make dronabinol and other cannabinoid medicines less exceptional and more like any other rigorously manufactured pharmaceutical product. That is the kind of company that can endure, scale and create value for decades.
