slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
Justin Gover, boss of GW Pharmaceuticals, explains how a drug called Sativex can ease the pain of multiple sclerosis sufferers – if the NHS can afford to buy it
Britain's only legal dope dealer looks quite ordinary. Bespectacled and wearing a dark grey suit, GW Pharmaceuticals' boss Justin Gover bears a closer resemblance to a City banker than someone who grows 20 tonnes of cannabis every year.
It is used to produce a multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, the world's first cannabis-based medicine, which is on the market in the UK, Spain, Canada and New Zealand. Called Sativex, it was the subject of a £20.7m international distribution deal last week with Swiss multinational Novartis – a tie-up with the potential to transform GW Pharmaceuticals' scale and sending its shares surging 15%.
Gover insists that Sativex – "medical marijuana" – does not get users high: "It's not just street cannabis put into a bottle." It is made from two cannabinoid substances found in the plant, THC and CBD. THC produces a high, but CBD counteracts it, and because Sativex is an oral spray the drug is absorbed more slowly than if it was smoked.
He is keen to dispel another myth: "We don't just plant seeds of cannabis. To get regulatory approval, we had to meet very strict standards. We had to know every vial of Sativex is identical."
The two strains of cannabis are each cloned and grown for eight weeks in a computer-controlled environment: "We end up with biological material that is entirely uniform."
Battling against scepticism in the Square Mile, Salisbury-based GW Pharmaceuticals has ploughed a lonely furrow as a listed company developing cannabis-based drugs since its flotation in 2001. The biotech firm keeps the location of its two cannabis fields secret; they are somewhere in southern England under 24-hour surveillance. Each plant is registered and genetically fingerprinted so it can be traced if stolen. GW needs special licences from the Home Office for sites, production, storage and exports, and the drug is transported in high-security vans to hospitals where it is put in a safe with opiates such as morphine.
For hundreds of thousands of MS patients with spasticity (muscle stiffness), Sativex promises pain relief where other drugs have failed. Gover says: "Picking up a teaspoon can be a problem and painful for people with MS. Sativex relieves the symptoms and improves sleep."
However, it is more expensive than other drugs and many health authorities are reluctant to pay for it. A 10ml bottle (equating to 90 sprays) costs £125, about £11 a day for the average user. Health authorities in the west and east Midlands and the south-west, including Cornwall and Devon, have come out against Sativex, saying it is not cost-effective.
cont at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/...tin-gover-cannabis-sativex-multiple-sclerosis
Britain's only legal dope dealer looks quite ordinary. Bespectacled and wearing a dark grey suit, GW Pharmaceuticals' boss Justin Gover bears a closer resemblance to a City banker than someone who grows 20 tonnes of cannabis every year.
It is used to produce a multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, the world's first cannabis-based medicine, which is on the market in the UK, Spain, Canada and New Zealand. Called Sativex, it was the subject of a £20.7m international distribution deal last week with Swiss multinational Novartis – a tie-up with the potential to transform GW Pharmaceuticals' scale and sending its shares surging 15%.
Gover insists that Sativex – "medical marijuana" – does not get users high: "It's not just street cannabis put into a bottle." It is made from two cannabinoid substances found in the plant, THC and CBD. THC produces a high, but CBD counteracts it, and because Sativex is an oral spray the drug is absorbed more slowly than if it was smoked.
He is keen to dispel another myth: "We don't just plant seeds of cannabis. To get regulatory approval, we had to meet very strict standards. We had to know every vial of Sativex is identical."
The two strains of cannabis are each cloned and grown for eight weeks in a computer-controlled environment: "We end up with biological material that is entirely uniform."
Battling against scepticism in the Square Mile, Salisbury-based GW Pharmaceuticals has ploughed a lonely furrow as a listed company developing cannabis-based drugs since its flotation in 2001. The biotech firm keeps the location of its two cannabis fields secret; they are somewhere in southern England under 24-hour surveillance. Each plant is registered and genetically fingerprinted so it can be traced if stolen. GW needs special licences from the Home Office for sites, production, storage and exports, and the drug is transported in high-security vans to hospitals where it is put in a safe with opiates such as morphine.
For hundreds of thousands of MS patients with spasticity (muscle stiffness), Sativex promises pain relief where other drugs have failed. Gover says: "Picking up a teaspoon can be a problem and painful for people with MS. Sativex relieves the symptoms and improves sleep."
However, it is more expensive than other drugs and many health authorities are reluctant to pay for it. A 10ml bottle (equating to 90 sprays) costs £125, about £11 a day for the average user. Health authorities in the west and east Midlands and the south-west, including Cornwall and Devon, have come out against Sativex, saying it is not cost-effective.
cont at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/...tin-gover-cannabis-sativex-multiple-sclerosis
