Physician and natural scientist Dr. Adrian Fischer founded DEMECAN in 2017, together with his fellow students Dr. Constantin von der Groeben (lawyer) and Dr. Cornelius Maurer (economist). Their goal: to guarantee patients in Germany access to medical cannabis of the highest pharmaceutical quality “Made in Germany”. Today, DEMECAN operates as the only independent German producer of medical cannabis on behalf of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and runs Europe’s largest indoor production facility for medical cannabis in Saxony.
Dr. Adrian Fischer developed the cultivation concept of medicinal cannabis and coordinated the expansion of the production facility near Dresden. He is responsible for the company’s own cultivation of cannabis, the production of cannabis products according to pharmaceutical standards and the research cultivation on the 100,000 sqm site in Ebersbach near Dresden. His responsibilities also include quality management and communication with physicians, pharmacists and other professional stakeholders.
Fischer completed his medical studies in Cologne and Boston. As part of his dissertation, he conducted pharmacological studies as a study physician and received his doctorate in 2015 for his dissertation, which was awarded the best scientific doctoral thesis of the year. The results of his studies on the mode of action of antidepressants in humans were awarded the prize for the most important research paper of the year by the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) and have been published in the most prestigious international journals. Dr. Fischer has received numerous other awards, including from the German Psychological Society, and his research has been reported in Time Magazine.
During his research on complex neuromodulatory and transmitter systems involved in pain regulation, he also focused on the mechanism of action of cannabinoids. Dr. Fischer quickly recognized the potential of the active ingredients of the cannabis plant, but also the lack of offers in Germany and the educational work that still needs to be done to free doctors, health insurers and patients from prejudices.
In addition to his research work, he was employed at the hospital. There, the native of Freiburg had to adjust to new extreme situations again and again. This prepared him for the turbulent time as a founder and entrepreneur in a newly emerging market. With DEMECAN, he wants to continue researching medicinal cannabis, because although cannabis has been used as a medicinal and useful plant for a long time, research is still in its infancy worldwide, especially in Germany.
