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UK: Cannabis used in new cancer technology
Patrick Jenkins The Financial Times
Sunday 25 Aug 2002 Placing cannabis in rectal passages was once a pastime restricted to smugglers sneaking drugs through customs. But a small Oxford-based biotechnology company plans to change that - by developing an innovative suppository to treat post-operative and cancer pain. Oxford Natural Products, a private company created four years ago, will announce tomorrow that ONP-04, derived from tetrahydrocannabinol (THP), has successfully completed the first phase of clinical trials. In tests on 30 healthy volunteers, the company found that rectal administration of the treatment improved its "bioavailability" - a proxy for its effectiveness. The company now plans to begin Phase II trials in oncology patients, to confirm that suggestion. Peter Hylands, chief scientific officer of ONP, said tests have shown that ONP-04 lasts several times longer than Marinol, an established synthetic cannabis-based medicine made by Solvay of Belgium, which is only administered orally. ONP-04 is longer-acting because the drug is not broken down metabolicly by the liver, as it would be if taken orally. Rectal administration should also be more acceptable to patients in circumstances where nausea and vomiting may be present after chemotherapy or surgery. It even short-circuits the "high" associated with oral cannabis-based medicines. "We saw no evidence of highs in our study," said Prof Hylands. "The drug is completely and slowly absorbed. It doesn't give the 'spike'." Supplies of cannabis for ONP-04 - which is licensed from the University of Mississippi - are grown in the US. But Prof Hylands said that as the drug approached commercialisation, the company could apply to become only the second registered grower of medicinal cannabis in the UK. GW Pharmaceuticals, whose treatments focus on multiple sclerosis, is the other. ONP makes three other treatments - for menstrual problems, hepatitis C and cognitive disorders - derived from European and Asian plant extracts. They remain in early-stage clinical trials. Christian Hoyer Millar, chief executive, said: "Cannabis has long been known to be effective in pain management - by using this derivative in a suppository format, we have achieved our aim of delivering the drug with minimal side effects, over a sustained period of time."
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