After 4 years of discussions around the experimentation of therapeutic cannabis in France, and its launch almost 2 years ago, the General Directorate of Health (DGS) is setting up a working group on the continuation of the experimentation of medical cannabis.
This working group will meet for the first time on December 16, according to information from APMnews.
It provides for “an update on the status of cannabis for medical use within the European Union” as well as discussions, which should have taken place in parallel with the first phase of the experiment, “on the various possible options for an entry into common law in France at the end of experimentation”.
It will bring together experimental stakeholders and external actors involved in one way or another in medical cannabis.
For the former, there will be the Canadian cannabis producer Aurora and its French relay laboratory for experimentation Etypharm, the Canadian Tilray and the French Medipha, the Israeli Panaxia Pharmaceuticals and the French Neuraxpharm, the Australian Little Green Pharma and the French Intsel Chimos, as well as the French Boiron and the Italian Recodarti, the latter two being “only” on the list of replacements and not currently supplying any product.
According to APMnews, more or less external actors will also participate in the experiment, such as:
- the American Curaleaf which bought Emmac in 2021, Emmac being on the list of replacement suppliers (with Boiron as a distributor)
- the Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Almirall laboratories, Jazz having acquired GW Pharmaceuticals, producer of Sativex and Epidiolex, in 2021. Almirall is the distributor of these products in Europe. As a reminder, despite a marketing authorization in 2014 for Sativex, it is still not distributed for objectively obscure reasons while Epidiolex is only distributed drop by drop in Temporary Authorization for Use (ATU) nominative
Representatives of Leem (Medicine companies) and Gemme (Generic same medicine) are also invited, as well as members of the National Agency for Safety and Medicines (ANSM), the Social Security Department (DSS) and the Directorate General for Healthcare (DGOS).
