Cannabis News Stop the Drug War!
  Pot of Gold
Posted by FoM on June 24, 2001 at 08:41:40 PT
Geoffrey Guy's company is about to float on Aim 
Source: Daily Telegraph  

medical Last week cannabis became respectable in the City. Edward Simpkins looks at why investors scrambled for shares in a young pharmaceuticals company. If anyone had predicted that cocaine, heroin and cannabis to the value of £322m would change hands in the City last week you might have assumed they were on something.

In fact the business world overdosed on a binge of illegal drugs. Perhaps it needed something to cheer it up in the midst of the current economic gloom.


On Thursday Johnson Matthey, the venerable precious metals company, said it would buy Meconic, the UK's only legal supplier of heroin and cocaine for medical treatments, in a £147m agreed bid. The price is justified by the growth prospects for its pain relief treatments. Demand is said to be rising by 6 per cent per year as the population ages and needs more care.

Meanwhile, the same day, GW Pharmaceuticals, which is creating cannabis-based medicines, came to the market with its shares six times over-subscribed, valuing the company at £175m.

Johnson Matthey is buying Meconic, which started off selling laudanum more than 200 years ago, to merge with its small but profitable pharmaceuticals business. It makes anti-cancer drugs for other companies from platinum, from which it also makes fuel cells and catalytic converters for cars.

Meconic's shares rose by more than a quarter on the news and it would have seemed churlish if the market had turned up its nose at GW Pharma.

Bringing the company to market hasn't been plain sailing and the idea of using cannabis originally evoked a hostile response. Opiates may have been a standard treatment for two centuries but tincture of cannabis hasn't been seen in a doctor's Gladstone bag for nearly 50 years.

Just five years ago the idea of creating beneficial medicines from cannabis was a pipe dream for Dr Geoffrey Guy, an entrepreneur specialising in plant medicines. Today that dream is close to reality.

Trials of his cannabis-based products start on humans later this year while this week his company, GW Pharma, moves onto Aim. The institutions are already hooked: GW had been hoping to raise £16m but has been handed £25m instead.

The proceeds of the float will be used to develop the drugs and increase GW's production of its raw materials. Unlike Meconic, which does not grow its own poppies but buys them from Spain, Turkey, India, Australia and South America, GW already grows 15 tonnes a year of cannabis at secret locations in the south of England - with the Government's blessing.

Staff at the high-tech indoor growing sites are regularly tested for signs of having taken the drug. Anyone testing positive faces dismissal, such are the stringent requirements of Home Office licensing.

GW's laboratories are located on the commercial space developed for biotechnology companies at Porton Down, the Government's top security chemical and biological warfare research establishment in Wiltshire. The site is defended by military level security.

Guy is a strait-laced teetotaler, equally at home in pinstripes or a lab coat. When I ask him if he has ever inhaled, his response is a frosty "what do you think?"

The extra money raised will allow GW to step up its efforts to develop a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and spinal cord injury but the company's most advanced product is a drug designed to alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Trials of that, delivered via a spray under the tongue (none of GW's products will be smoked), are expected to start soon in Canada.

It is estimated that some 3,000 MS sufferers in the UK are currently breaking the law by smoking cannabis to treat their symptoms. This has created a headache for the Home Office as juries have shown a tendency to acquit them, despite judges telling them to do the opposite.

The Government recognises that this brings the law into disrepute and is keen to see the development of a legal substitute, removing the excuse for anyone who tries to use the medical defence.

For Guy, executive chairman of GW, it was an invitation to a conference in 1997 held jointly by the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society that made him think that an idea which had been at the back of his mind for years might be practical.

"I realised that I was looking at a highly respected body of scientists and physicians and that there had been a change of mood and sentiment since I last tried to develop the idea. At that conference a lot of people were saying that the frustration for the researchers and patients was that no proper research could get under way because of the illegal nature of the materials."

Guy, whose previous companies had worked with controlled substances, stood up at the conference and explained how it would be possible to research and develop cannabis-based drugs if the Home Office was willing to be helpful.

His involvement in plant medicines goes back more than 20 years. After qualifying at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he was training to be an obstetrician, he joined a pharmaceutical company in the south of France.

"The main thrust of the company and where they made their money was in plant medicine. I was a young, newly qualified doctor and I thought that was extremely French, I sort of pooh-poohed it. But I began to learn quite a lot about the intricacies of plant medicines and how valuable they might be."

"I then moved into drug delivery, working for a company best known for its controlled delivery morphine products. I was involved in the early development of that and it gave me my initial grounding in drug delivery and controlled substances."

In 1985 Guy branched out on his own, founding a company, Ethical Holdings, which listed on Nasdaq. One of its first products was its own version of a controlled-delivery morphine product. But other opportunities soon arrived.

"In 1989 I was contacted by a medical colleague who was a paediatric dermatologist at Great Ormond Street and he told me about these children with really very, very severe and complex eczema. He described to me that some of these children were coming back into his clinic looking to all intents and purposes better. Finally some of the mothers admitted that what they had done was take their children off to a Chinese doctor."

Overcoming his friend's reluctance to consult a herbalist, the pair obtained the formula and set about commercialising it.

"I created a subsidiary of Ethical Holdings to develop a medicine derived from the extract of 10 Chinese plants for eczema. In the early stages we published in the British Journal of Dermatology and we had the most dramatic results, absolutely dramatic results. That was the spearhead for the revived interest in Chinese medicine over the past 10 years."

That subsidiary was Phytopharm, which has gone on to become a pharmaceutical company whose shares peaked at 880p, valuing it at £330m, earlier this year.

Sadly the difficulty of obtaining fresh and properly harvested, stored, transported and dried ingredients made the product impossible to license and it remains on Phytopharm's list of projects. Its current projects include an anti-obesity drug derived from a cactus used by African bushmen to stave off hunger during long hunting trips, and a bowel disorder treatment using an Indian curry plant.

Guy put separate management in place for Phytopharm, a shareholder became the chief executive, and Guy no longer has any involvement with the company. Richard Dixey, the new chief executive of Phytopharm, is a Buddhist who has strived to shed the "hippy" tag.

But Guy says that the concept of deriving medicines from plants, especially one which thousands of people have effectively been testing on themselves for years, is now well established as a logical, low-cost route to developing new treatments. Many new drugs perform the function for which they were intended but have unforeseen side effects and are in many cases toxic.

GW points to research which shows that the lethal dose for cannabis is around 40,000 times the standard dose. This compares favourably with 23 times for aspirin (which is derived from the willow tree) and 50 times for morphine.

The other advantage over developing synthetic drugs, known as new chemical entities or NCEs, is that there are more than 60 cannabinoids present in the cannabis plant, making genericisation of the medicines very difficult when patents expire.

Unlike Meconic, GW is not expecting to make a profit in the near future, but with all that extra cash raised and a low burn rate, investors won't see their investment going up in smoke.

External Links:

Meconic
http://www.meconic.com/

Phytopharm
http://www.phytopharm.co.uk/

Introduction To Cannabis-Based Medicines
http://www.gwpharm.com/cann_index.html

Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Published: June 24, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Related Articles:

Cannabis-Grower GW to Float with £175m Tag
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10124.shtml

Prescription Pot: More Than a Pipe Dream?
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9765.shtml

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives
http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml


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Comment #8 posted by tomasi raiyawa on August 13, 2001 at 20:56:22 PT:

more research based articles on marijuana
Bula! I'm writing from Fiji. I intend to present seminar paper on the commercialisation of Forest by-product. I enjoyed the above article and I intend to use it as exemplary for my delievery. In fact I would appreciate if more information could be obtain on the subject that I could use.

You know you have shown me what I could dwell on. Thank you very much

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #7 posted by Sudaca on June 25, 2001 at 15:52:31 PT
remember this one pols
"When I ask him if he has ever inhaled, his response is a frosty "what do you think?"

and was let off the hook. Clinton, Bush, take notes.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by dddd on June 24, 2001 at 23:08:28 PT
Mean Green
How cruel and unusual of you GreenFox.....I'm another
old hippie who you have caused jealous salivation....

Enjoy........May JAH Shine on You.....dddd

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #5 posted by CongressmanSuet on June 24, 2001 at 20:56:15 PT:

Foxey, we all know that the ...

smoke is awesome. We kinda figure the Hash is exquisite. But what I want to know is, how does it feel to be truly free? Even if just for a short period. Knowing that you have nothing to worry about on your way back to your place of residence. THAT would be the awesome part of the experience for me. Of course, that feeling of freedom would naturally be enhanced quite nicely by a few cones of " White Smurf" LOL! To be free from worry, now thats priceless...


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by schmeff on June 24, 2001 at 16:31:41 PT
Government Extortion
The Government recognises that this brings the law into disrepute and is keen to see the development of a legal substitute, removing the excuse for anyone who tries to use the medical defence.

This sounds a lot like the Amerikan way of doing things. Make a lowly herb that anyone can grow in their own backyard illegal, then require patients to purchase this very same material from some korporate pharmaceutical company.

Nothing more than extortion under the guise of government policy. Stealing what is already ours and selling it back to us, another small way of ensuring that the rich get richer and the poor get it up the ass.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by JSM on June 24, 2001 at 09:34:00 PT
Brother we have contact..
Foxy, maybe there really is something to a contact high. Your post brought laughter and smiles to this old hippie.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 24, 2001 at 09:14:56 PT
Have a great time Greenfox!
I'm sure you are having a wonderful time. Don't worry about sending pictures now if you don't have time. We'll do them when you get back if you want. Til then! Party On!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by greenfox on June 24, 2001 at 09:06:34 PT
GREETINGS FROM AMSTERDAM!!!!!!!
Hello I know I said I'd send you guys weekly updates, but it's been a bitch. I have like, five minutes to type this (internet cafes over here charge by the minute, so...) I will make it quick, short, and sweet.

The pot is awesome.
The hash is awesome.

Among the favorites:

Grey Area
Damkpkring (sp)
De Kuil's
Bareney's

and the cafe I am in, (Softland) has the best white smurf I have smoked. I am stoned SHITLESS!

later all

luv & peace

sly in green, foxy in KIND
-greenf0x


[ Post Comment ]


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