A cannabis-based drug is showing 'promise' in children with severe epilepsy
Epidiolex, made from cannabis extract cannabidiol, has reduced seizure frequency by half in children with Dravet Syndrome
Epidiolex, made from cannabis extract cannabidiol, has reduced seizure frequency by half in children with Dravet Syndrome
A cannabis-based drug for children with severe epilepsy has shown "promise" in early testing.
The medicine, known as Epidiolex, has reduced seizure frequency by a half to three-quarters, on average, in a small group of children with a debilitating form of epilepsy known as Dravet Syndrome.
It has shown similar results in children with so-called "drop seizures" - those in which the patient falls to the ground due to a loss in muscle tone.
Epidiolex has been tested in 151 patients across America after the US medicines regulator granted British drug maker GW Pharmaceuticals special permission to supply it to children in particular hospitals. However the company has only seen the results in 58 of these patients since data on the remaining children has not yet been released by the doctors.
The patients include 12 with Dravet Syndrome, 12 with drop seizures and 34 with other types of difficult-to-treat epilepsy.
However the drug did show side effects in some patients. Nearly a fifth of children experienced "somnolence" - a strong desire to sleep, while around a tenth felt "fatigued".
Dr Elizabeth Thiele, director of the paediatric epilepsy programme at Massachusetts General Hospital, said she was "very encouraged" by the early results.
“I believe that Epidiolex has the potential to be an important advance in treatment for these treatment-resistant children and will likely have a significant role as a future therapy," she added.
Epidiolex is made from cannabidiol, an extract from the cannabis plant, and is currently only being tested in American children. But it will soon be given to hundreds of children across the US and Europe - including patients at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital - when GW Pharmaceuticals begins formal clinical trials in the coming weeks.
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