Platform uses Black Friday to sell medical cannabis treatment – 11/27/2023 – Panel

The ubiquitous Black Friday promotions are one of the gateways to Cannect, a platform that presents itself on the internet as “the only and largest medical cannabis ecosystem in Latin America”.

Through the website, people interested in cannabis treatments for illnesses ranging from insomnia to Parkinson’s can book appointments online with more than 3,000 doctors who partner with the platform.

The platform helps the patient fill out forms to request authorization from Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to import medicines, acts as an intermediary with laboratories abroad and monitors the patient with a team of specialized nurses, always online.

On Black Friday, Cannect offers R$75 off medical consultations and progressive discounts on shipping and on “selected products”, not medicines.

“You may have already received the advertisement for that television you were looking for, for the clothes to wear at the end of the year”, says a promotional email sent by the platform. “Discounts like today’s only appear once a year, taking care of your health is something that lasts a lifetime.”

When contacted by the Panel, Anvisa says that a technical analysis would be needed to verify whether there is a problem in using Black Friday to seduce patients, but reports that it has already published a resolution prohibiting the advertising and sale of products by Cannect previously.

There is no irregularity, however, in the process of obtaining a prescription and then counting on the website’s help to mediate the authorization request with Anvisa.

For the company’s CEO, Allan Paiotti, 52, the obstacles with Anvisa are “natural adjustments at the beginning of the operation”, given that the company was founded in 2021. Since then, it reports having served more than 35 thousand patients. The idea is to be “a kind of Amazon” for cannabis-derived products.

According to him, Brazil has the potential to generate R$10 billion in treatments using the substance in 5 years.

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