Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jul 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Carol Matlack, Bloomberg Businessweek
Page: D2

FIRM'S HOPE FOR HIGHER PROFITS RESTS ON MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Medicinal marijuana advocates contend that smoking pot helps relieve
pain and alleviate nausea. British drug company GW Pharmaceuticals is
betting that medicine made from cannabis can also treat maladies as
diverse as diabetes, colitis and epilepsy.

GW is the only pharmaceutical group in the world that sells a
prescription medicine derived from marijuana plants, as opposed to
synthetic equivalents. The drug, a nasal spray called Sativex, has
been approved by regulators in eight countries - Italy, most recently
- - to treat spasms associated with multiple sclerosis. A request for
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval is pending.

Taking aim at a potentially much bigger market, the company plans to
start second-stage clinical trials of a cannabis-based drug that has
showed promise in treating Type 2 diabetes. The drug, with the
tongue-twisting name of tetrahydrocan-nabivarin-9, improved patients'
production of insulin and helped lower blood-sugar levels between meals.

An estimated 371 million people worldwide suffer from Type 2 diabetes.
Patients taking the cannabis-based drug "could potentially be
controlled on oral therapy for a longer period of time and wouldn't
need to take injections," says Mike Cawthorne, a GW consultant who is
director of metabolic research at the University of Buckingham.

Big cannabis bet

GW Pharma, with $52.2 million in annual sales, is literally betting
the farm on cannabis: Its entire drug pipeline is derived from pot
that it grows at an undisclosed location in southeastern England.

By contrast, other companies developing pot-based medicines have used
synthetic versions of chemicals that are either identical or similar
to those found in the plant.

While the idea of using a living plant might have some marketing
appeal, in fact GW Pharma has to "purify the chemicals so much, that
it's almost incidental that they're using cannabis as the source,"
says Sam Fazeli, chief pharmaceutical analyst for Bloomberg Industries
in London.

Regulatory hurdles

Though the diabetes drug has the potential to be GW's first
blockbuster, it also faces big regulatory hurdles. One is the
possibility that it could block receptors in the body that ordinarily
trigger pleasurable sensations and increased appetite often associated
with pot smoking.

French drugmaker Sanofi developed an antiobesity drug called Acomplia
that acted by blocking these receptors, but had to pull it from the
market after it caused heightened rates of depression and suicide.

Diabetes, though, is just one of many diseases that GW is targeting.
It's developing a pot-based medication to treat inflammation in
ulcerative colitis, and is working with Otsuka Pharmaceutical of Japan
on a drug that could treat epilepsy. The company also is carrying out
further studies on the multiple sclerosis drug Sativex that could lead
to its use for treating pain in cancer patients.

And no, patients taking these medicines won't get a buzz. Of an
estimated 60 chemical compounds in marijuana, only one will get you
high. GW is working with the other 59.
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MAP posted-by: Matt