As new developments give rise to a number of promising areas for further research, the inter-related interests of the scientific community and healthcare professionals find themselves in neat alignment.

With this comes an increased need for investment into crucial research on medical products and devices for conditions that lack suitable treatment alternatives. 

The scope of our R&D department covers all relevant matters. The group has projects involved in a number of sectors including agri-tech solutions, breeding programs, trait screening, composition, product integration and more.

Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence covers prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity, and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy. 

Products covered by the guideline include cannabis-based products for medicinal use (as set out by the UK Government in the 2018 Regulations), the licensed products delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol combined with cannabidiol (Sativex) and nabilone, plant-derived cannabinoids such as pure cannabidiol (CBD), and synthetic compounds which are identical in structure to naturally occurring cannabinoids such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), for example, dronabinol.

The UK, for some time now has been at the front of developments in the medical use of cannabis. In 2005 the MHRA conducted a Trail to determine the effect of standardised extract of cannabis sativa on a patient suffering from Multiple Sclerosis.

The trial was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III trial that set out to determine the safety of standardised cannabis extract of cannabis sativa in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and aimed to offer symptomatic relief of muscle stiffness and pain in Multiple Sclerosis in the patient using.

The trial set out to determine; relief of body pain, amount of muscle stiffness, amount of body pain, relief and amount of spasms, relief and amount of sleep disturbances, disease-specific impact on life and patient-rated ability to walk. 

The success of this research on patients suffering from seizures later led to the development and approval of EPIDIOLEX® which in 2018 became the first plant-derived cannabinoid prescription medicine and the only FDA-approved form of cannabidiol. EPIDIOLEX® has also now received approval in the European Union under the tradename EPIDYOLEX® for adjunctive use in conjunction with clobazam to treat seizures associated with LGS and Dravet syndrome in patients two years and older.

Recent findings justify the value of further research into the therapeutic benefit of full-spectrum medicinal cannabis products. Credible and independent evidence-based research is now needed to support similar research endeavours focused on changing lives.

To put in context the difference research such as this makes over 60 million people suffer from Epilepsy globally, 600,000 of these people in the UK alone. Epilepsy is just one of a range of conditions medical cannabis has been found to offer exciting and promising results.

Breakthrough research initiatives such as this are one of the many reasons for the UK's leading stance on addressing the needs of patients suffering from treatment-resistant conditions. The UK now hosts the largest observational research trial in Europe, the results of which will lay down a crucial foundation for the future success of UK-based clinical trials.