Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2016
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2016 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Andrew Pollack, New York Times

MARIJUANA-BASED DRUG REDUCES SEIZURES IN TESTS

An experimental drug derived from marijuana has succeeded in reducing 
epileptic seizures in its first major clinical trial, the product's 
developer announced Monday, a finding that could lend credence to the 
medical marijuana movement.

The developer, GW Pharmaceuticals, said the drug, Epidiolex, achieved 
the main goal of the trial, reducing convulsive seizures when 
compared with a placebo in patients with Dravet syndrome, a rare form 
of epilepsy.

If Epidiolex wins regulatory approval, it would be the first 
prescription drug in the United States that is extracted from 
marijuana. The drug is a liquid containing cannabidiol, a component 
of marijuana that does not make people high.

As many as 30 percent of the nearly 500,000 American children with 
epilepsy are not sufficiently helped by existing drugs, according to 
GW. Parents of some of these children have been flocking to try 
marijuana extracts, prepared by medical marijuana dispensaries.

A number of states, in response to pressure from these parents, have 
passed or considered legislation to make it easier to obtain 
marijuana-based products. Hundreds of other children and young adults 
have been using Epidiolex outside of clinical trials, under programs 
that allow desperate patients to use experimental drugs.

While many parents have reported significant reductions in seizures, 
experts have been cautious about anecdotal reports. As such, the 
results from the GW trial have been closely watched.

"I'm very proud and happy about this study because it is science - we 
did things the way they should be done," said the study's lead 
investigator, Dr. Orrin Devinsky of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center 
at New York University Langone Medical Center. "We need to do 
systematic assessments of medical marijuana."

The full details of the study were not released; the company said 
they would be presented at a medical conference.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom