US experts back marijuana-based drug for childhood seizures

[DonViejo]

Source: Associated Press



By MATTHEW PERRONE
Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — A medicine made from the marijuana plant moved one step closer to U.S. approval Thursday after federal health advisers endorsed it for the treatment of severe seizures in children with epilepsy.

If the Food and Drug Administration follows the group’s recommendation, GW Pharmaceuticals’ syrup would become the first drug derived from the cannabis plant to win federal approval in the U.S.

The 13-member FDA panel voted unanimously in favor of the experimental medication made from a chemical found in cannabis — one that does not get users high. The panelists backed the drug based on three studies showing that it significantly reduced seizures in children with two rare forms of childhood epilepsy.

“This is clearly a breakthrough drug for an awful disease,” said panel member Dr. John Mendelson, of the Friends Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Read more: https://apnews.com/01e09c3360a0452b94c98ff989726120/US-experts-back-marijuana-based-drug-for-childhood-seizures

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FDA Panel Backs Cannabis-Based Drug to Treat Childhood Seizures

A 13-member FDA panel voted “unanimously in favor” of an experimental medication with a cannabis chemical to treat “severe seizures in children with epilepsy” on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. Epidiolex, a syrup formulated by GW Pharmaceuticals, is essentially a “pharmaceutical-grade” CBD oil—which does not have the “mind-altering” effects that THC does. If the FDA follows the group's recommendation to approve the drug, it would be the “first drug derived from the cannabis plant” to get the agency’s approval in the U.S. Some patients involved in the drug’s trials had dozens of seizures a day—and said it dramatically reduced the number of seizures they experienced, allowing them to live a normal life. The panel backed the trial up with three studies that show how the drug has helped with “two rare forms of childhood epilepsy.” It’s not clear why the substance reduces seizures.

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https://apnews.com/01e09c3360a0452b94c98ff989726120/US-experts-back-marijuana-based-drug-for-childhood-seizures

[Aristus]

1. I hope it gets approved.

There is a cannabis-based anti-nausea medication, dronabinol, that my father took while he was undergoing chemo for pancreatic cancer.

It helped him have a better quality of life in the time he had left.

[BigmanPigman]

2. My cable repairman told me that his

daughter has severe seizures and medical pot has been 99% beneficial to her. In fact, he moved his whole family to CA so they could get this for their child. They live in a camper and the man said he would do it again in a minute. I never understood why our govt wouldn't allow a drug from nature to be approved for
its citizens. Our strong anti-pot policy goes back to Nixon and is just as crooked and evil as he was.

[PatSeg]

3. That is incredible

What a shame that a family has to relocate just to get their child medicine that actually works. I've heard so many stories about the many beneficial uses for cannabis, it is disgraceful that such benefits would be withheld from people, often because the pharmaceutical industry doesn't want the competition.

The anti-pot attitude is at best ignorant, but more often it is just pure greed.