JonLiebling is Political Director of United Patients Alliance, the UK’s leading medical marijuana client advocacy group. This piece initially appeared on his blog site which can be checked out here. This variation has actually been modified for brevity.
OnNovember 7th, in addition to Gavin Sathianathan, trustee of the UnitedPatients Alliance, I consulted with the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Product Marketing Strategist of GW Pharmaceuticals at a coffee bar in mainLondon There was absolutely nothing private about it– simply a coffee and an excellent chat about the world inning accordance with GW and how it varies from UPA’s. We even discovered a few things all of us settle on.
At the start of September, an post entitled UK Patients Won’ t Benefit From GW Pharma’s Expansion was released onMarjuana com. Shortly later on I got a call from GW. They had an interest in understanding more about the “cannabis world”, where it is, exactly what it is, and who is doing exactly what. I need to state that they are extremely well notified.
For the past 20 years, considering that its development in 1998, GW has actually focused specifically on the following objectives:
“GW’s strategy is to maintain a world leading position in the field of cannabinoid science and in the research, development and commercialisation of cannabinoid molecules as novel prescription pharmaceutical therapeutic candidates”
What do GW Pharmaceuticals feel about the legalisation of marijuana? They do not.
It is of no issue to their company or method whatsoever. Any more than legalising the production of heroin would be to a pharmaceutical business who produces Tramadol from Poppies!
What do they think of a modification to the scheduling of raw marijuana in the Misuse of Drugs Act? They do not.
It is of no issue to them and does not actually impact their research study in any considerable method. As long as they abide by the conditions of their license, they can get on and do exactly what they need to do. On the one hand, it is affecting their item marketing and education of physician which is, in turn, affecting client gain access to in the UK. This is why GW have actually opted to invest more in other nations that have less limiting medical marijuana policies. On the opposite, it’s existing status in Schedule 1 does provide a competitive benefit, however, on balance, this has no genuine effect.
They are extremely mindful about exactly what they state and how they state it and it actually is rather apparent that, far from being “in cahoots” with the UK Government, they continue to exist in spite of them.
They have actually invested a big quantity of time and cash on working within existing policy, not attempting to alter it. Though it took them about 8 years, GW effectively established the world’s very first authorized prescription medication originated from the marijuana plant, Sativex, now in more than 30 nations, for the treatment of spasticity due to MultipleSclerosis They understand its restrictions and additional item research study is continuous.
Interestingly, the expense of Sativex on personal prescription bears little relation to the expense at which it leaves their production centers, nor the expense to the NHS. The other reality of specific interest was that GW have definitely no input on the scheduling of their authorized medications. That is in between the Home Office and their advisory bodies to figure out.
Their next item, Epidiolex, has a small footprint worldwide of prescription medications. They are looking for approval for this cannabinoid medication for serious types of youth epilepsy just. This is a ‘niche’, or as they state in their own words, ‘novel’ medication. Their target has to do with 40 k clients worldwide. To put this in point of view, this year GW are on course to lose $200 m. Clinical trials are extremely costly to run, so the concept of a ‘Big Pharma’ takeover of the marijuana area to make big revenues is not the truth (yet). Sorry to dissatisfy the conspiracy theorists, none of this seems like ‘Big Pharma’ to us.
However, prior to you begin believing that this is an advert for GW, I was simply mentioning that they are not an opponent. But they aren’t our pals either! GW are a pharmaceutical business. They been around. They have no objective of apologising to anybody about this. They are here to remain, they have objectives and they prepare to accomplish them.
A crucial takeaway was around the stress in between GW seeing themselves as a pharmaceutical business versus a number of us seeing them as a medical marijuana business. They think they remain in business of pharmaceutical solution, and that they are utilizing marijuana for the constituent chemical parts is practically an afterthought.
As they prepare their method for the next 5 years, GW are beginning to take a look at a few of the broader ramifications of their development and how or where they may suit the more comprehensive world of marijuana as medication. They are presently “fact finding” and speaking to a couple of organisations they have actually discovered fascinating. They discovered the United Patients Alliance fascinating, even enjoying our current medical marijuana clients’ tea-party demonstration outside Parliament!
They feel they actually are putting clients initially through their uncompromising objective of producing a constant pharmaceutical medication that will do nobody any damage and they have an extremely strong sensation about anybody making non-evidenced and unverified medical claims about marijuana and/or cannabis-based items, particularly with concerns to Cannabinoid Rich Hemp Oil Food supplements.
GW have a great deal of information and have actually established a great deal of research study, however exactly what they are doing not have is patient feedback. This is a location where groups like the United Patients Alliance are specialists. If the end objective is patient access to marijuana as medication, I believe we actually can both advantage for a bit of sharing and teaming up–.
Whilst GW might not be our pals, they are not our enemy either.
Moreover, they are the UK’s biggest business with an interest in marijuana and operating in the quickly growing worldwide pharmaceutical market. It might well remain in the UK’s interests, particularly post-Brexit, to have them prosper. I question Sativex or Epidiolex will provide considerable hold or ownership over the future of marijuana as medication as they are successfully still a specific niche pharmaceutical business.
We eagerly anticipate our next coffee!
The post Friend Or Foe? UK Patient Advocates Meet Cannabis Pharmaceutical Giants appeared first on HoneycombBong.com.
from
http://honeycombbong.com/friend-or-foe-uk-patient-advocates-meet-cannabis-pharmaceutical-giants/
No comments:
Post a Comment