Children and young adults with epilepsy may qualify for investigational studies of cannabidiol, an ingredient in marijuana, slated to begin soon in New York, the state Health Department announced Wednesday.

My colleague Claire Hughes reports over on The Pulse blog:

Patients aged 1 to 21 with treatment-resistant epilepsy may qualify for the study, to be held at five locations — three in New York City, one in Rochester and one in Buffalo.

“These studies will give patients in New York State who are not responding to conventional anti-epileptic therapy access to a drug that has shown promise in previous expanded access studies,” said state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.

Initial enrollment of patients is expected to begin in the next few months.

Children with epilepsy already qualify to get medical marijuana under the state’s nascent program. But the specific product being studied, Epidiolex, is only available through the study, according to the state Health Department.

Patient advocate Julie Netherland of the Drug Policy Alliance nonetheless praised the study as a there has so far not been widespread access has been so far limited by the number of sites where medical marijuana is offered and the number of doctors registering for the state program.

And some children who participate in the study might particularly benefit from the particular strain of cannabidiol being investigated, Netherland said.

Children and young adults must be referred by their neurologists for consideration as participants. The studies will last a year. Additional details about the selection criteria and process will be posted online at: http://www.wadsworth.org/news/nysdoh-epidiolex-expanded.

Studies will take place at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx; the University of Buffalo – Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, New York Langone Medical Center and Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, and the University of Rochester Medical Center.