cannabisnews.com: Little Light Confusion Over Cannabis Drug Date 





Little Light Confusion Over Cannabis Drug Date 
Posted by CN Staff on January 21, 2004 at 20:36:39 PT
By Heather Tomlinson, The Guardian 
Source: Guardian Unlimited UK
The legal sale of drugs derived from cannabis has been delayed until the summer, six months later than expected.GW Pharmaceuticals, which specialises in developing clinical drugs from the plant, published its final results yesterday. It admitted the regulator's decision on whether to approve its spray-administered Sativex drug has been pushed back and is now expected in the second quarter of this year. It should be on sale a few months after that.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has been studying the drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and pain since March. GW chairman Geoffrey Guy blamed the wait on a paperwork backlog at the regulator and said "it hasn't been delayed ... we got the expectations wrong". GW also revealed that its loss had fallen from £12.1m to £9.6m, mainly due to income from a commercial agreement with German rival Bayer, which will market Sativex. The company said it had "considerable quantities of stocks of active raw materials" in preparation for an approval from the regulator. Mr Guy said at any one time the company had 15,000 cannabis plants in its facilities and produces about 60 tonnes a year at present. He said recent concerns over the mental health effects of cannabis were not relevant to the products. "One has to be clear, it is very different from the heavy daily use of recreational drugs by under-18s." Sativex is administered by a spray in the mouth. Although it has the cannabis ingredients that produce a "high", the doses should be too low to have such an effect, Mr Guy said. The company said yesterday that it has nine late-stage trials under way on cannabis-derived products for cancer pain and symptoms of MS. The five trials where results are pending are due to report this year, the company said. It is also looking at treatments for diabetes and Crohn's disease. GW is developing a dispensing system for methadone, a treatment for heroin addicts, but it said because it was concentrating on Sativex, the system had fewer resources allocated to it. The group raised £19m last year by placing new shares with investors, contributing to a cash pile of £32m at its financial year's end in September.Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)Author: Heather Tomlinson, The Guardian Published: Thursday, January 22, 2004Copyright: 2004 Guardian Newspapers LimitedContact: letters guardian.co.ukWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Related Articles & Web Site:GW Pharmaceuticalshttp://www.gwpharm.com/Cannabis MS Drug 'Available Soon'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18190.shtmlBritish Approach To The Business of Cannabishttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17930.shtmlBlow for GW Pharma Cannabis Remedyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17874.shtmlCanada: GW and Bayer Announce Agreement http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17741.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #3 posted by charmed quark on January 23, 2004 at 17:37:21 PT
Virgil - it'll be the same as Marinol
You know - something about putting THC in sesame oil makes it different. They'll use the same argument wih Sativex -medicines aren't smoked and Sativex is different because ...-Pete
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Virgil on January 21, 2004 at 22:00:23 PT
Kucinich speech
The Kucinich State of the Nation speech given in NH yesterday can be listened to while surfing the Internet- You can listen to the audio from the DK web site 
http://resources.kucinich.us/video/press_audio/sotn.ramI am listening to it now. It is steep contrast to the lies and crap the puppet read from the speech his ventriliquist wrote for him. You know, I bet Kucinich actually wrote his speech- with help of course. The guy just talks sense. He is not a corporate whore. He is the man that is needed to restore the government of the people. Who else has enough sense to even let the fight against Medical Miracle Plant go? It should be legal anyway and who else says that?
 Seniors will spend $1.8 trillion over the next 10 yearsHealth insurance went up 50% in the three years Bu$h has been in Residence.Medicine for seniors went up 50% in the three years Bu$h has been ruining the country.He is calling for universal single-payer system. This is not socialized medicine. The $1.6 trillion now spent would cover everybody and would eliminate profits, executive salaries, lobbying, and administrative cost. We are paying to insure everyone- we just are not getting it.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Virgil on January 21, 2004 at 21:02:13 PT
The stonewall will fall
The company said yesterday that it has nine late-stage trials under way on cannabis-derived products for cancer pain and symptoms of MS. The five trials where results are pending are due to report this year, the company said. It is also looking at treatments for diabetes and Crohn's disease.What happens when unchallengable studies meet the stonewall of US policy/attitude? What happens when people with these illnesses or those that saw loved ones suffer unto death see these studies and find out that they actually work and define safety? We have had one person go off on the government here at Cnews whose mom suffered with Crohn's disease and died a painful death.Will Walters say that we have 10,000 studies that say dirt is as good as any one of the now Schedule 1 cannabinoids or any combination? What will people say when they find out that Nixon's 1971 War on Cancer did not explore the 1974 research when it was cannabinoids that offered the best hope and the clear path for research? How can NIH with a $28 billion budget not do what little GW did? Why do I suffer? Why did my mom suffer? And now you want me to buy extracts when what I need is a seed and to get the government out of the tyranny and corruption business?The jig is up. If I were a politician I sure would hope that cannabinoids are not found to prevent some serious disease in my lifetime. People might not think I am as wonderful as I do.What I want to know is how is this going to affect the position of Congressmen and Presidential candidates. The conversions of position have to come. At some point someone might call their positions criminal and mass murder.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment