US boost for cannabis-based cancer spray
A cancer spray delivering a cannabis-based medicine - developed by a Cambridge UK medical technology business - has won a key patent approval in the US.
A cancer spray delivering a cannabis-based medicine - developed by a Cambridge UK medical technology business - has won a key patent approval in the US.
GW Pharmaceuticals' CEO Justin Gover is hailing the approval as a major stepping stone to potentially lucrative transatlantic sales.
The patent covers both GW's Sativex® medicine dosed to cancer patients - comprising a liquid cannabis extract - and the delivery spray device itself. It covers this element of the company's IPR until March 2021.
It also builds on an increasingly formidable patent portfolio that GW is gathering globally.
Gover said: "In total, we now have seven different patent families containing one or more pending or issued patents relating to Sativex."
GW's IP portfolio includes multiple patent families with issued or pending claims directed to plants, plant extracts, extraction technology, pharmaceutical formulations, drug delivery and the therapeutic uses of cannabinoids - as well as plant variety rights, know-how and trade secrets.
In the US, Sativex is currently in Phase 3 clinical development as a potential treatment of pain in people with advanced cancer. The programme is intended to support the submission of a new drug application for Sativex in cancer pain with the US Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere.
http://www.businessweekly.co.uk 22/04/2013