GW Pharmaceuticals
GW Pharmaceuticals is a British biopharmaceutical company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product Sativex, nabiximols (brand name, Sativex). Sativex is the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain full market approval in any country. Its cannabis-based product, Epidiolex, developed for experimental treatment of epilepsy, will undergo stage-two trials in the US in 2014.
History
Background
Drs. Geoffrey Guy and Brian Whittle founded GW Pharmaceuticals in 1998. In the same year, they obtained the only cultivation license in the United Kingdom from the Home Office and the MHRA, allowing GW Pharmaceuticals to cultivate cannabis from seeds and clones to conduct scientific research concerning the medicinal uses of the plant.
HortaPharm
In July 1998, GW Pharmaceuticals collaborated with HortaPharm B.V., a cannabis research and development business based in the Netherlands, founded by two expert horticulturists from California, Robert Connell Clarke and David Paul Watson, also known as 'Sam the Skunkman'. HortaPharm grew medicinal strains for the Dutch government.
Sativex
Main article: Nabiximols Nabiximols (trade name Sativex) is a patented cannabinoid mouth spray developed by GW Pharmaceuticals for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, who can use it to alleviate neuropathic pain, spasticity, overactive bladder, and other symptoms. Nabiximols is also being developed in Phase III trials as a potential treatment to alleviate pain due to cancer. It has also been researched in various models of peripheral and central neuropathic pain.
Nabiximols is made with two unknown Cannabis strains, and is extracted with ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Bayer
In 2011, GW Pharmaceuticals concluded a partnership with Bayer for the distribution of Sativex in North America, and have an estimated annual production of 100 tons of medicinal cannabis since 2012.
See also
- The Medicinal Uses of Cannabis and Cannabinoids (Book).
