GW Pharmaceutical update

[littlbit]

GW sees cannabis treating diabetes and cancer

Wednesday, May 20 10:29 am

 

Cannabis specialist GW Pharma said on Wednesday cannabis extracts could be used to treat cancer, schizophrenia and diabetes, and it plans to ramp up research into the latter over the next six months. "We're looking at developing other products from the plant which are not psychoactive ... the plant has 60 or 70 of them, many of which have a very interesting pharmacology," said R&D Director Stephen Wright.

 

Cannabis extracts may work as treatments for excess fat associated with diabetes, body weight and blood pressure.

 

"The next area within our pipeline that we are seeking to invest in will be the diabetes metabolic areas and we will be looking to expand our in-house research in that area over the coming six months," Chief Executive Justin Gover told Reuters.

 

The company is also looking at cannabis plant extracts as treatments for schizophrenia, epilepsy, prostate cancer, breast cancer and brain cancer, as part of its development collaboration with Otsuka.

 

"Behind the story of GW has become in parallel a very interesting world leading scientific endeavour looking at the application of these different cannabinoids," said Gover.

 

"You have a receptor system in your body called a cannabinoid receptor system and there is a genuinely exciting new field of science which emerged over the last decade or so where we sit right at the centre."

 

The company also announced alongside its first-half results on Wednesday that its cannabis-based drug, Sativex, has been submitted to European regulators for the treatment of spasticity in multiple sclerosis.

 

If it is approved, Sativex will be marketed in Britain by Germany's Bayer and in the rest of Europe by Spain's Almirall . It is also being studied as a treatment for cancer pain.

 

Sativex, which is sprayed under the tongue, became the world's first cannabis medicine to win regulatory approval when it was approved in Canada in 2005.

 

Cannabis is already widely used by Multiple Sclerosis sufferers to relieve pain.

 

Earlier, GW said that it swung to a maiden first-half net profit of 4.0 million pounds.

 

(Reporting by Ben Deighton; editing by Simon Jessop)

[luciddreaming]

When is Sativex going to be approved here? I want that bitch under my tongue now. Damn.... I'd spray it so good....