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UK: Trials of cannabis pain relief raise hope for terminally ill

Jill Treanor

The Guardian

Thursday 20 Jan 2005

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Cannabis could be used to help relieve the pain suffered by desperately ill
cancer patients following successful trials by GW Pharmaceuticals.

The company, which was set up to create drugs derived from cannabis plants
grown at secret locations in Britain, said yesterday that the results of
the trials had been "statistically significant".

Patients in the study had advanced cancer and were suffering pain that had
not been responding to the usual medication such as morphine.

The company said the trial found that approximately 40% of the patients
given its Sativex oral spray showed a greater than 30% improvement in the
relief of their pain.

Sativex, a cannabis medicine containing tetrahydrocannabinol and
cannabidiol, has not yet received regulatory approval in the UK, despite GW
Pharma's initial hopes that it would be given the green light at the end of
2003.

Geoffrey Guy, GW Pharma's chairman, is preparing for a hearing with the
Medicines Commission, the senior advisory body to the Medicines Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). An outcome of the discussion is expected
in the summer.

In the meantime, the company is pressing ahead with the launch of the
product in Canada, where Sativex has been given qualified approval for use
as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

The experience with the authorities in Canada, where Sativex will be
marketed by the German drugs company Bayer, has prompted GW Pharma to begin
the process of seeking approval from the US authorities. Mr Guy admitted it
could take three to four years to get approval for the drug in the US,
where the views on the medicinal use of cannabis are polarised and likely
to lead to a heated debate.

He described the company's financial year to the end of September 2004 as
one of "significant achievement".

"We expect 2005 to be the year of our first product launch, a time of
restored momentum, as well as a financial turning point as we start to
generate commercial revenues from product sales," he said.

The group's loss for the year to end-September widened to UKP13.1m from
UKP8.1m in 2003, when the company received a UKP5m signature fee from Bayer.

Its shares rose 3p to 120.5p. They traded at over 165p before the news in
early December that the UK authorities were demanding another trial.

 

 

 

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