GW pharmaceuticals has the only cannabis-based medicine approved by the FDA and hopes to release its findings by September 2021

GW Pharmaceuticals plc, the only drug company to make a cannabis-based medicine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has started clinical trials to see if a similar approach can help children living with autism.

CNN reports that researchers at the Montefiore Medical Centre in New York think a non-psychoactive cannabis extract called cannabidivarin, CBDV, could be the key.

GW’s last effort was a drug called Epidiolex, which is meant to help reduce seizures and other symptoms in children with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

The main ingredient in that drug was CBD. The researchers told CNN autism shares some of the characteristics seen in epilepsy. “When you look at these—loss of cognitive function, poor socializing skills, poor language skills—what you’re looking at is a phenotype very similar to autism,” said GW founder and chairman Dr. Geoffrey Guy. “In my mind, epilepsy and autism-type presentations are on the same continuum.”

Clinical trials on 100 patients are underway, running until June 2021. The finals results are expected to be out in September of that year.

• Email: bhristova@postmedia.com | Twitter: bobbyhristova

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