Cannabis-based medicine launched in UK

Cannabis-based medicine launched in UK

By John O’Doherty

Published: June 22 2010 04:46 | Last updated: June 22 2010 04:46

A cannabis-based medicine will go on sale across the UK this week, after British regulators gave their approval for the marketing of Sativex, a mouth spray therapy for multiple sclerosis patients.

“There are a number of firsts here,” said Dr Geoffrey Guy, chief executive of GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex.

“This is the first prescription cannabis-based medicine to be approved by a full pharmaceutical process anywhere in the world. It’s also the first plant-based medicine to be approved in modern times. It’s also the first of a range of products we have under development – all from the cannabis plant – and this approval provides global validation of our platform,” Dr Guy said.

Sativex is administered by a mouth spray device, roughly the size of an asthma inhaler, but the spray is directed under the tongue rather than into the lungs. A single device will deliver about 90 sprays and a typical patient would administer about eight sprays per day to relieve the shaking commonly experienced by MS patients.

The drug, which was launched on Monday and will be marketed by Bayer, has been available since 2005 to about 2,500 patients in the UK on a so-called “named patient” basis, where patients request the manufacturer for access to the drug.

The approval by the UK’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority will allow doctors to prescribe Sativex directly without seeking named patient approval. It will cost roughly £11 ($16.2) a day and is likely to be reimbursed by most primary care trusts.

Analysts predict between £50m and £60m of peak annual sales for Sativex by 2015, with GW receiving between 20 and 30 per cent of that.

The approval of Sativex provides a boost to GW’s development programme to create other cannabis-based medicines. Trials are already underway on cannabis-based medicines to treat epilepsy and psychosis, and GW is seeking approval from US regulators for the marketing of Sativex as a treatment for cancer pain.

GW creates Sativex by processing cannabis plants it grows in secret facilities at an undisclosed location in the UK. Sativex cost £100m to develop and was based on selective breeding of two different types of cannabis plant that were acquired in 1998 from Dutch cannabis researchers Horta Pharm, which has a non-disclosed share in the success of Sativex.

“It’s wonderful news,” said David Watson, chief executive of Horta Pharm.

“I look forward to other cannabinoids being found out to be useful for other medical indications.”

Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals closed down 4.3 per cent or 6p at 135p on Monday.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e5e5e06-7d2f-11df-8845-00144feabdc0.html

GW creates Sativex by processing cannabis plants it grows in secret facilities at an undisclosed location in the UK. Sativex cost £100m to develop and was based on selective breeding of two different types of cannabis plant that were acquired in 1998 from Dutch cannabis researchers Horta Pharm, which has a non-disclosed share in the success of Sativex.

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Oh yeah baby .... only the best chronic strains to make it ...

It has to be made legal here then ... come on big fats cats in parliament wake up..

This will give sick people out there some hope for a better pain relief alternative.

But doesn't Sativex have a strange / unnatural ratio of chemicals in it? I am no expert, but it seems that natural flowers might work just as well or better than a heavily processed product that omits some chemical constituents that the chemists couldn't understand/see a use for.
(If Sativex is as processed as I have heard it is...)

"Analysts predict between £50m and £60m of peak annual sales for Sativex by 2015"

That is money that is being taken away from the natural weed industry and given to the controllers of a a processing plant!


Better to smoke some weed, if you ask me. (Though, I admittedly haven't researched this issue. Except for the smoking weed part. )

GW creates Sativex by processing cannabis plants it grows in secret facilities at an undisclosed location in the UK

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This sentence gives me James Bond vibes

Good to see that even if it isn't legal over here recreationally that it is being gradually made legally for the benefit of those needing it medically. If it was stuck here medically legal only, I would still be happy as it will do significant benefit to those who need it.

so what schedule will this product fall into if any

megawoof said:

so what schedule will this product fall into if any

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Currently it's a private prescription only drug. IF NICE approve it, it'll go into the NHS as a prescription only medicine. It's the UK, so it won't be scheduled the same way as the US.

This really isn't good though. It's a typical example of those in power abusing and corrupting a plant which has been used for thousands of years, and has never killed anyone.

Yes, I know, let's take that largely harmless plant, and extract just two of the active cannabinoids, patent it and MAKE MILLIONS rather than simply allowing patients to grow this plant which has been around for many millennia.

Also, what about the other ~60 cannabinoids which aren't extracted? Sativex is just THC and CBD. Are we to assume that they in no way contribute to the effects of cannabis? Surely GW Pharma can't be that delusional? Surely they see that the whole reason Marinol was such a resounding failure was the complete lack of inclusion of other cannabinoids?

It just seems so ridiculous that we'd write off all these other compounds as if they're insignificant. So sterile, so artificial.

The best analogy I can think of is taking all the Capsaicin out of a chili and adding a few milligrams of white powder to your food for spice, rather than simply using the whole chili.

Or even better, getting a huge platter of fruit, extracting some of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre, but leaving the vast majority of it in the fruit, then turning those little bits you extracted into a pill which can be swallowed. There we go, blueberry pill with some of the goodness and benefit of real blueberries ...

Why not just stick to blueberries?

I just can't understand how when we've people like Edwin Stratton rallying for change, we've seen how many thousands of people the cannabis plant can GENUINELY help through the medicinal system in those 13 states in the US, WHY is there still such prejudice and dichotomy over this simple plant?

I mean, if we were all trying to get high off hemlock and it was killing 1 in 100 of us that tried it, I could almost see the hysteria. But, we're not, and there is still this social stigma.

There's still clearly a long way to go if we (as a society) can acknowledge that cannabis contains some incredibly useful and hugely beneficial (even anti-psychotic) compounds but the plant as a whole is seen as a schizophrenia-inducing scourge on our culture. Still, people thought homosexuality was a choice that deserved a prison sentence not that long ago. Maybe they'll all grow up soon.

This has evil, greed and ignorance written all over it.

$0.02

edit: There's a documentary here which is slightly annoying at times, but generally pretty fair, and they go and see the GW Pharma grow room. It basically looks like some super concentrated BHO they make on mass scale. Looks funky.

HerrSchnauffer, I think your rage is misdirected. This relatively tiny pharmaceutical company is not the DEA. Moreover, their website has images like this on its main page:



Hardly the posterchildren for prohibition. In fact, I'd wager they'd love to see cannabis decriminalized.

seep said:

Hardly the posterchildren for prohibition. In fact, I'd wager they'd love to see cannabis decriminalized.

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Perhaps it was a little harsh, but do you really believe that this small pharmaceutical company would wave the profits from their all new wonderdrug to stand up for what's morally right?

I'm just skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, and besides, the GW Pharma guy in that Horizon documentary creeps me out. Looks like the typical evil company CEO that sits in his big leather spinny chair tapping his fingers together plotting his next way to exploit and rape the naive (but perhaps deserving) public.

In fact, I'd wager they'd love to see cannabis decriminalized.

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I think that's doubtful = Where would they get their money from then?
I actually think that could be one reason why it's not being decrim'd. Because the phat kats at GW would lose out on a lot of cash due to people just going and buying the herb itself (which as someone mentioned will likely work better) instead of their most probably wrongly-ratioed, processed "medication"

For the most part it's Western Cannabis that is "wrongly-ratioed". Pretty much 90% of the strains have little to no CBD. And also I think that if Cannabis was legalised these guys would still make just as much money if not more.

Actually, hasn't Sativex been in testing for quite a few years? I was pretty sure an elderly lady actually died from a negative reaction to it.

Yeah, here's the article alleging that this lady's death was related to the use of Sativex. : http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=6382

So, they must have worked on it in the past five years, eh?

That's odd. I'm pretty sure marijuana and the chemicals it contains have no medicinal properties. I wonder why they are turning it into pharms? /sarcasm

Why not just make the plant itself available. Cheaper to produce, safer to consume.. I never understand the point of these drugs like this, and marinol, and what not. its fucking stupid!