For Devon’s Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, the switch to a smaller patch for pain treatment using a synthetic cannabinoid has bumped back the company’s target date for human testing.

“They were able to develop an adhesive matrix patch that is about the size of a credit card,” Chairman and CEO Armando Anido said of patch-maker LTS Lohmann in a Philadelphia Business Journal report by John George. “The old one was the size of a big iPhone. The (matrix patch) is also unbelievably thin — about as wide as a couple of sheets of paper.”

Volunteers eager to try out the new Zynerba patch for transdermal synthetic cannabinoid pain treatment are now expected to get their chance early next year. While the study will involve healthy patients, Zynerba is aiming to develop its medical marijuana treatment for sufferers of fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathic pain, refractory epilepsy, and Fragile X syndrome.

Compared to unregulated products where marijuana is now legal, “I clearly believe the way we are doing it is the right way — the tried-and-true pathway established by the FDA years and years ago,” Anido said.

“Medical marijuana is not being held to the same standards as a drug that goes through the FDA approval process.”

Read more about Zynerba’s clinical trials in the Philadelphia Business Journal here, and check out previous company coverage on VISTA Today here.