The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first cannabis-derived drug for sale, which has shown to control seizures in children with life-threatening forms of epilepsy.
Epidiolex, manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals in the UK, is made from cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive part of the cannabis plant. It was made for children 2 and older who are diagnosed with Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, two serious forms of epilepsy that cause life-long developmental delays.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first cannabis-derived drug for sale, which has shown to control seizures in children with life-threatening forms of epilepsy.
Epidiolex, manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals in the UK, is made from cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive part of the cannabis plant. It was made for children 2 and older who are diagnosed with Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, two serious forms of epilepsy that cause life-long developmental delays.
It's not clear how quickly the drug will be available for prescription.
The legal landscape around CBD (cannabidiol) is unsettled and unclear, and it became even more confusing with today’s FDA approval of the CBD-based drug Epidiolex.
Epidiolex, a “pure plant-derived CBD” extract developed by the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals, has been shown to drastically reduce seizures in large populations of children with epileptic syndromes. (For a clear explanation of what CBD is and how it affects the brain, see Leafly’s guide to cannabidiol by Dr. Dustin Sulak.)