[HappaGuy]

GW Pharma plunges as cannabis drug trial disappoints
Tue Apr 8, 2008 6:34am EDT
...
By Jonathan Saul

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals said its pioneering cannabis-based medicine failed to show significant improvement in a final stage trial to treat neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

GW shares plunged as much as 31 percent to a four-month low of 49 pence on Tuesday following the latest setback for its biggest drug hope, Sativex. Its stock was 21 percent lower by 0951 GMT.

GW said Sativex had a very high patient response rate in the trial but that the results narrowly failed to reach statistical significance due to an unexpectedly large placebo response.

"While valid, this indicates that the effect of Sativex is marginal, and we retain our doubts as to whether the product will ever prove a commercial success," KBC Peel Hunt analyst Paul Cuddon wrote in a research note.

Nomura analyst Gary Waanders described the result as disappointing.

GW's managing director Justin Gover said there was a "desperate need" for new pain treatments and Sativex had a "real role" to play.

"The commercial proposition is not in question," Gover told Reuters. "It is a hazard of pain research that placebo effects occur in clinical trials and Sativex has seen this with this study........."

More follows HERE

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/healt...nnel=0&sp=true

Does anybody know what specific formulation of cannabis is used to make Sativex by GW Pharmaceuticals?

I've been across a fair bit of research that indicates that
(a) not only does pot provide paradoxical effects at different dosages - e.g. enhancing pain or seizures with too much or too little rather than reducing them, (article link HERE) but
(b) specific cannabinoids (and terpenes I'd imagine) both potentiate and antagonize one another, and that
(c) these complex relationships are not just dose-dependent but dose-ratio dependent.

That is, for instance -just for example these are not the actual results of the research to which I refer which specifics I don't recall just now but I've already posted them to WT - say, a combination of Delta 9 THC and cannabidiol might be particularly effective in providing relief.

But also, specific ratios of cannabinoids like THC9 and Cannabidiol etc. provide relief at ten times the effectiveness of either cannabinoid alone.

Put another way, the basic ratio idea is that if two cannabinoids are used in a ration of say 4:1, they are much more effective than the same two cannabinoids in used in different ratios e.g. 9:1 or 1:1.

So I'm not inclined to despair at this turn of events.

Rather, I'm inclined to say we need to throw a lot more money toward medical cannabis research.

But that won't happen unless the research results in patentable and profitably saleable medications for the corporations that risk their money paying for the research. Dammit.

Under the 'free -market' we the people only get to live if a corporation can make money off our survival. We only get relief from the host of ills to which the human form is heir if corporations stand to make a buck off our breaking backs.

Frankenstein holds the fate of his creator in his hands, and he is not a grateful warm-fuzzies kind of monster.

Unless the government does it's job and funds MMJ research, which as we know is not likely soon, in America at least.

Thankfully, in the UK, Canada, France, the scientific establishments are not entirely cowed by America's War on Drugs -which amounts to a war on medical science. Most of the research posted here on WT comes from overseas.

[referee4]

I agree throw more money at research, how about the dispensories who are non profit .. handing over a few donations to research grants for compassionate care solutions.

[resipsa]

The stock is down? Good time to buy. Because when they do finally get it right (and they will) anybody holding that bad boy stock is going to be one happy camper.