Posted on 04/19/2018 6:06:40 PM PDT by Mariner
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.
The drug carries a potential risk of liver damage, but panelists said doctors could monitor patients for any signs. More common side effects included diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue and sleep problems.
FDA regulators are due to make their decision by late June. Approval would technically limit the drug, called Epidiolex, to patients with hard-to-treat forms of epilepsy. But doctors would have the option to prescribe it for other uses and it could spur new pharmaceutical research and interest into other cannabis-based products.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcra.com ...
From the article: "The company declined to comment on the price of the drug before the approval decision. Wall Street analysts estimate it could cost more than $25,000 per year."
Just wow.
Yeah, the time for that came and went. CBD oils are readily available for much less than 25 grand a year. 30 bucks for a vial that’d probably last a kid a month.
Great news! I know kids who have tried it and it’s helped!
My daughter was on anti-seizure meds for 10 years. She’s lucky and got off of them this year.
Wish it was going to be cheaper, but that’s how much my daughter’s meds were.
That’s the family that up and moved to Colorado because of her seizures, isn’t it? Last I read about her is she’s healthy, happy and taking CBD oils.
Dronabinol (THC) is FDA certified.
Yes, but it’s a synthetic drug.
This article points to “extracted from marijuana”, which according to US law has no known medical use.
Schedule I. Heroin. LSD.
After hearing rumors/stories of marijuana being able to reduce or eliminate epileptic seizures for some people, a friend of mine in college who suffered from severe epilepsy (several seizures a week) started smoking a single, small, joint, once a week. He did not have another epileptic siezure the entire time I knew him, and he eventually stopped taking his prescribed epilepsy medicine.
A single anecdotal account, I know, but I witnessed a couple of his seizures. I also witnessed him eliminating them by self medicating with small amounts of marijuana, so this news story does not surprise me.
L8r
The fr reefer police will be here shortly to say it will lead to demonic possession.
“Epidiolex is essentially a pharmaceutical-grade version of cannabidiol, or CBD oil, which some parents have used for years to treat children with epilepsy.”
AJ Sessions holds back his salty tears.
Yup, and it’s already legal in 49 states.
Duh
Cannibis is excellent medicine
And no you don’t smoke it
There’s tinctures chocolate gummies you name it
It’s beyond excellent
It’s G-d given to us on a silver platter
Harry j anslinger was dead wrong
The world now knows it
This would change that.
“More approval from lib-Dem bureaucrats of the DEVIL WEED. That 13-person panel should be locked up by Sessions for being in cahoots with the drug cartels.”
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You must have missed the news. President Trump just kicked federal mj prohibition, not to mention Jeff Sessions, in the nutz =>
“Trump tells senator there will be no marijuana crackdown”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3647323/posts
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So is President Trump in cahoots with the cartels?
Looks like I had my sarcasm detector turned off:)
There’s various varieties of “godly.” The kind that heeds the biblical admonition to not lean on sumptuary prohibitions as an aid to holiness might not be what Trump is now, but give him time.
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