Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jul 2006
Source: CounterPunch (US Web)
Copyright: 2006 CounterPunch
Contact:  http://www.counterpunch.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3785
Author: Fred Gardner
Note: Fred Gardner is the editor of O'Shaughnessy's Journal 
http://www.ccrmg.org/journal.html of the California Cannabis Research 
Medical Group.
Cited: International Cannabinoid Research Society 
http://www.cannabinoidsociety.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)

BIG PHARMA'S STRANGE HOLY GRAIL

Cannabis Without Euphoria?

The International Cannabinoid Research Society held its 16th annual 
meeting June 24-28 at a hotel on the shores of Lake Balaton, about 80 
miles southwest of Budapest. Most of the 350 registrants were 
scientists -chemists, pharmacologists-employed by universities and/or 
drug companies.

The sponsor given top billing was Sanofi-Aventis, manufacturer of a 
synthetic drug, known variously as "SR-141716A," "Rimonabant," and 
"Acomplia," that blocks cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

Additional support came from Allergan, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Meyers 
Squibb, Cayman Chemical, Eli Lilly, Elsohly Laboratories, Merck, 
Pfizer, two Hungarian companies -Gedeon Richter Pharmaceutical and 
Sigma-Aldrich- and G.W. Pharmaceuticals. Researchers affiliated with 
other drug companies presented papers and posters and audited the 
proceedings. For most the holy grail is a product that will exert the 
beneficial effects of cannabis without that bad side-effect known as 
"euphoria."

It so happened that on the next-to-last day of the ICRS meeting, 
Sanofi got approval to start selling its cannabinoid-receptor blocker 
in England as an anti-obesity pill. R. Stephen Ellis, MD -one of two 
California doctors in attendance-informally asked Sanofi researchers 
what happens when a Rimonabant/Acomplia user ingests external THC 
- -i.e., smokes a joint?

Apparently, the company hasn't studied the interaction. "If this drug 
becomes the blockbuster they anticipate," says Ellis, "We are going 
to be seeing many, many patients who use cannabis for, say, chronic 
pain and take Rimonabant to lose weight. Will the beneficial effects 
be negated?

Will they require different dosages? Probably -because there will be 
two molecules, THC and Rimonabant, competing for the same receptor 
sites." According to the pharmacologists, Rimonabant will outcompete 
THC, but not shut it out completely.

Sanofi reps said they expect U.S. approval for Rimonabant/Acomplia by 
next spring, maybe sooner, and Bloomberg News quotes stock analysts 
who foresee $5.5 billion in annual sales. (Sanofi may use the name 
"Zimulti" in the U.S.) Although company spokespersons are careful to 
say the cannabinoid-antagonist drug is for obese patients with 
diabetes and/or high cholesterol, it will be prescribed to countless 
millions of people who want to lose a few pounds.

Some 13,000 people have taken Rimonbant in clinical trials.

In the largest trial, subjects lost 14 pounds the first year and 2.4 
pounds the second year. But they gained the weight back when they 
stopped taking the drug, implying that you have to take it as long as 
you live to maintain the effect.

As the involvement of so many corporate labs in the ICRS suggests, 
many more drugs that exert effects via the body's endocannabinoid 
system will be introduced in the years ahead.

T.M. Fong of Merck enthusiastically described his team's discovery of 
a new "inverse agonist" that led to "food intake reduction and weight 
loss" in mice and rats. Competition for Rimonabant/Acomplia/Zimulti 
is already in the pipeline.

The attitude of ICRS scientists towards Rimonabant is surprisingly 
fearless. Esther Fride of the College of Jedea and Samaria presented 
a paper that flatly asserted "cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists 
induce weight loss without undesirable side effects." The paper was 
entitled "Undesirable Weight Gain Caused by Prolonged Use of 
Anti-Depressant Medication May be Prevented With Rimonabant Without 
Loss of Antidepressant Effectiveness." Fride and co-author Nikolai 
Gobshtis worked with mice and rats, using a measure of depression 
known as the "forced-swim test" in which swimming and struggling are 
supposedly good signs, floating a sign of giving up (depression). The 
bottom line to the consumer: if you're gaining weight on Prozac 
("After short term weight loss," Fride noted, "antidepressant 
medication, when administered for prolonged periods, often induces 
weight gain"), you can take Rimonabant.

We'll provide more news from the ICRS meeting in future dispatches 
- -including encouraging findings by Donald Abrams, MD, re vaporization 
and results from a Canadian study in which 13 of 14 patients who used 
G.W.'s Sativex for severe pain and spasticity reported relief (mild 
to very good). It was my sad honor to stand by and answer questions 
about a poster by Tod Mikuriya, MD, who canceled his planned trip to 
Hungary for health reasons. Meanwhile back in California the DEA has 
sent an extraordinary letter of complaint to the Medical Board of 
California, alleging that four doctors in the San Diego area have 
been approving cannabis use for conditions that they - the DEA 
agents- don't consider sufficiently grave.

The Board has initiated investigations based on the complaint.

The reality is, doctors who know something about how the cannabinoid 
system works are going to be far better suited than their uneducated 
counterparts to monitor and treat a population in which millions are 
taking Rimonabant/Acomplia and its inevitable imitators.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake