The Mail reports…..He estimates it could help between 4,000 and 5,000 people with epilepsy in the UK – about half of them children.
Mr Gover said three major studies had confirmed the effectiveness and safety of Epidiolex for two types of ‘childhood onset’ epilepsy. Given that, he believed there was ‘a realistic chance that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will conduct a quick review’ and approve it for NHS use.
Epidiolex is made from a strain of cannabis grown legally under a Home Office licence in huge greenhouses near Wissington, Norfolk.
The strain has high concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD) which works as an anticonvulsant, but less than 0.1 per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound that gives cannabis smokers their high but which also raises the risk of psychosis.
There is no clinical evidence that THC helps prevent fits, said Mr Gover, who claimed that children were being put at risk by some unregulated cannabis oils that contain much higher levels of THC than stated on the label.
He also said it was unnecessary to legalise cannabis in order to develop pharmaceutical-quality medicines derived from the plant.
