Pubdate: Wed,  2 May 2001
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/364
Author: Giles Elgood
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

UK CANNABIS TESTS OFFER PAIN SUFFERERS NEW HOPE

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - A British drug company said on Wednesday it was a 
step closer to launching cannabis-based medicine for patients suffering 
multiple sclerosis and other forms of severe pain.

GW Pharmaceuticals said it had obtained encouraging results from the latest 
phase of clinical trials and was now extending its programme into Phase III 
trials, which involve a wider range of patients in new locations and is the 
last hurdle before approval is granted.

The company said it had also obtained regulatory approval to start clinical 
trials in Canada.

Sufferers from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which attacks the 
central nervous system, have been calling for a pain-relieving cannabis 
medicine for years and many have broken the law by buying the drug from 
street dealers.

GW has invested 12 million pounds ($17 million) in its research and hopes 
to market its first prescription cannabis-based medicine in 2003.

It will offer patients the pain-relieving benefits of cannabis without what 
the company calls "unwanted psychoactive side effects."

Getting "high," as would happen if patients smoked marijuana, does not in 
itself offer medical benefits. These are derived from the drug's active 
ingredients known as cannabinoids.

GW's trials have involved patients taking cannabis-based medicine by 
spraying it under their tongues, which allows it to be absorbed rather than 
swallowed.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said: "Data from our four 
Phase II studies in approximately 70 subjects is positive and encouraging. 
Patients are clearly gaining benefit.

"We are seeing a significant improvement in quality of life for sufferers 
of a range of medical conditions and look forward to extending the trials 
programme."

Results appeared to show significant reduction in pain, muscle spasm and 
bladder dysfunction as well as improved neurological function.

Guy said the company had received approval from Canadian health authorities 
allowing it to start trials in Canada.

GW Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a private company, set up in 1997, which operates 
under licences issued by the British Home Office (interior ministry) to 
cultivate, possess and supply cannabis for medical research.

The company has been growing cannabis in secure, computer-controlled 
glasshouses in southern England.

The plants are the same as those grown for recreational use but trials are 
designed to maximise the drug's analgesic, or pain relieving, effect rather 
than to make subjects so high they do not care about the pain.

The company said that if health authorities issued a licence for 
cannabis-based medicine, the government had indicated it would be willing 
to amend narcotics laws to allow it to be prescribed.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager