WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The U.K.-based company GW Pharmaceuticals announced it has received U.S. government approval to begin trials of Sativex, a cannabis-derived pain treatment.
This is likely the first time a company has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to import a drug derived from cannabis, a substance found in marijuana plants. The non-psychoactive, oro-mucosal spray will be tested on cancer patients who do not respond to standard pain treatments.
The drug is already available to treat pain associated with multiple sclerosis in Canada, and the company has also signed a licensing agreement with Spanish pharmaceutical manufacturer Almirall to market the drug in Europe.
To help finance the Phase III trials, the company signed an agreement with a U.S.-based institutional investor to raise $15 million by selling 6,165,978 new ordinary shares of stock at about $2.41 per share in the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
GW Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in plants derived from cannabis and other plants, grows cannabis plants under computer-controlled conditions in secure greenhouses at a secret location in the United Kingdom. The company has cultivated its plants to be lower in a substance called THC, which leads to intoxication, and higher in CBD, which has therapeutic properties. Most of the cannabis grown in North America is virtually devoid of CBD.
