Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:


After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

UK: GW Pharma defends cannabis territory

Richard Wray and Simon Bowers

The Guardian

Wednesday 24 Oct 2001

---
GW Pharmaceuticals, which has spent four years developing medicines based
on cannabis, yesterday moved to dispel investors' fears that the
government's more relaxed approach to the drug would remove the need for
its products.

GW believes the more liberal approach to cannabis signalled by the Home
Office this week may allow it to widen the number of illnesses it can treat
using cannabis-based medicines. GW is developing pain-relief products for
patients suffering from severe conditions such as multiple sclerosis and
certain types of cancer. Executive chairman Geoffrey Guy said yesterday he
welcomed the government's decision. "The more liberal each country's
approach is to cannabis - and we are dealing with a number of countries
around the world - the easier it is for us to address some of the larger
but less severe conditions."

On Tuesday home secretary David Blunkett told a Commons select committee
that cannabis is to be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug. Mr
Blunkett also made it plain that if trials of cannabis-based medicines
proved a success the government would change the law to allow doctors to
prescribe medicines based on the drug.

In a separate development, an ex-employee of a former GW joint enterprise
partner is considering legal action over a patent technology used in GW's
under-tongue cannabis spray device. The patent was sold to GW by Bioglan
following joint research carried out three years ago. But Calvin Ross, who
no longer works for Bioglan, is thought to believe the rights to the
technology were not assigned to Bioglan.

Mr Guy said: "It has been published in our name. End of story for us." A
Bioglan spokesman said the firm had never been sued over a patent and had
received no notice of intended legal action.

 

 

 

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back. 




This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!