Dunbar Pharma’s Leah Fletcher discusses Ireland’s potential in the cannabinoid therapy landscape and how breaking the traditional is a critical step towards advancement.
Leah Fletcher is the co-founder and CEO of Irish biopharmaceutical Dunbar Pharma, which specialises in researching, developing and manufacturing EU-GMP-certified, plant-based active pharmaceutical ingredients.
A fan of the non-traditional route, Fletcher first began her career as a teacher in an Irish national school and then a school in British Columbia, Canada before taking a “huge leap from classroom to cleanroom”.
Her time teaching had instilled within her a deep interest in the human capacity to learn, adapt and navigate complexity, as well as how policy inevitably shapes society when there is a widening gap between what exists and what people are in need of.
She told SiliconRepublic.com, “My interest in cannabinoid medicines began while I was living in Canada around the time cannabis was legalised there. I was fascinated by how quickly the conversation around the plant was changing and how emotional, political and commercial it was. At the same time, I was aware of campaigners in Ireland, many of them mothers, lobbying for access to cannabinoid therapies for their children.”
As a new mother herself, this change in how the plant was being viewed and its potential made a significant impact and she began to think more often about the emerging gap between patient needs, the room for public debate and safe, regulated access.
Fletcher said, “I became interested in how cannabinoids could be moved away from uncertainty and placed into a pharmaceutical framework: evidence, quality, consistency, compliance and patient safety. I saw pharmaceutical systems not as a barrier, but as a solution.”
But, as is often the case with anything worth doing correctly, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Fletcher as she began this new venture.
Personal or professional progress
“It would not be fair to paint a rosy picture. This has likely been one of the toughest professional journeys I will ever experience. One of the biggest obstacles has been the personal sacrifice of building something from the ground up,” said Fletcher.
She noted the importance of finding balance in entrepreneurship, but admitted that balance isn’t always possible and when you are missing family events, weddings and birthdays because of work in a lab, a conference, or travel, there is often a lack of honest, open conversation on the topic.
She said, “When you are building something you believe can improve people’s lives, there is a window where you have to give your whole self to it. That does not mean it is easy or sustainable forever, but in start-up mode, you have to be ready for whatever moves the project forward. It gets easier once the biggest hurdles are complete and a strong team is in place, but the early years require enormous resilience.”
Coming from a non-traditional, non-pharma background also presented a significant challenge for Fletcher as she found herself in a technical, regulated industry that required her to learn new language, systems and standards and to meet expectations. She explained the easiest way to navigate such a change is to accept and expect that you are likely the “least experienced person in the room”.
But the highlights for Fletcher have been deeply personal as well as professional.
She said, “One of the greatest privileges has been building things from scratch with my husband as co-founder and my father as facilities manager. It has been a family affair and something my young son has witnessed as he grows up. When he was a toddler, he used to say, ‘Mama makes magic potions’. There is no magic, but I love that, through his eyes, the work looked magical.”
Ireland and the global stage
Describing Ireland’s cannabinoid therapy landscape as “cautious and tightly controlled”, Fletcher explained that while access to therapies does exist it is limited and often focused on specific, treatment-resistant conditions.
“That reflects where we are as a country,” she said. “There is interest, but also a need for more clinical confidence, education and structured pathways. Ireland’s potential is much bigger than its domestic market. We already have a global reputation in pharmaceutical manufacturing, compliance, quality and life sciences talent.
“Those strengths matter because the future of cannabinoid medicines will be built on pharmaceutical credibility. Ireland also has world-class academic work happening around cannabinoid science and applications, including research activity at University of Galway, Trinity College Dublin and others. The knowledge base is here. The pharmaceutical infrastructure is here. The manufacturing discipline is here. The question is whether we connect those strengths well enough to create more home-grown pharmaceutical companies.”
She explained, businesses receive significant support from committed Irish investors and agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, but added, if Ireland wants more indigenous pharmaceutical companies to be able to compete globally, then the country is in need of stronger, flexible funding options for scale-up companies in regulated sectors.
Fletcher said, “Life sciences companies do not scale like software companies. Timelines are longer, regulation is heavier, capital requirements are different and risk is more complex.
“A company may need to fund licensing, controlled-drug permissions, facility build-out, cleanrooms, validation, stability programmes, specialist equipment and skilled teams before meaningful commercial traction is possible. That requires patient capital and policy structures that understand the sector.
“For cannabinoid therapies, Ireland could become a specialist hub for high-quality cannabinoid APIs, formulation, analytical development and regulated international supply. There could be many more companies like Dunbar Pharma contributing to global medicine, local employment and the Irish economy. Sometimes the difference is not talent or ambition; it is whether funding and policy supports are designed for the realities of building regulated pharma companies from the ground up.”
Real world impact
And it isn’t just the economy that would benefit from additional support in building up healthcare-based start-ups. Fletcher stated that the creation and availability of alternative therapies for patients is critical, but implementation and access must be carried out responsibly. Especially in an environment where many people are living with conditions that are difficult to treat and manage.
She said, “Innovation matters because patients deserve continued effort, not resignation. Alternative therapies must be held to high standards. Hope is powerful, but it has to be protected by evidence, quality and ethics. In cannabinoid medicine, public perception can be polarised, so innovators must avoid overpromising and build systems clinicians, pharmacists and patients can trust.
“It is also not enough to simply have the medicine. Access has to be designed into the system. Across Europe, we are seeing movement towards more practical access models: telemedicine, better private coverage, fewer barriers to specialist consultations, pharmacist-led models and more sensible scheduling of controlled drugs where appropriate.”
She is firmly of the belief that Ireland’s innovators and entrepreneurs have the skill needed to make an impact in the space of cannabinoid therapies, it just requires a dose of bravery, industry know-how and support.
Fletcher said, “Ireland has the talent, discipline and scientific credibility to build serious companies in complex technical sectors. We do not always need innovation to come from large multinationals or major global hubs. Smaller Irish teams can do ambitious, globally relevant work too.”
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