The fears of the patients turned out to be real. While we noted last week the possible shortage of cannabis-based medical products in France, a communication to the stakeholders of the experiment confirmed the situation.
The experiment will thus lose its supply of pharmaceutical CBD oil without THC – CBD 50 oil from Little Green Pharma – which represented around 60% of the products prescribed, and without existing stock.
According to our information, the laboratory in charge does not wish to continue to offer its product either for free or at €14 per bottle, a price well below its manufacturing, transport and customs costs, as proposed in the call for offers from the Ministry of Health for the extension of the experiment.
The proposals made for patients who are treated with this product are to replace it:
- for epileptic children stabilized with Epidyolex
- for stabilized adults suffering from spasticity and/or multiple sclerosis with a CBD:THC 20:1 oil
Adult patients who have found satisfaction in a pure CBD oil (without THC) should therefore change treatment and experiment with a new CBD oil with THC, which some know not to tolerate.
Once again, the role of the Directorate General for Health (DGS) is widely singled out, by many sources we have contacted, for its lack of anticipation and its lack of interest around this experiment to the detriment of sick people.
Some, like Yann Bisiou, a specialist in drug law, express it head-on:
“There are CBD shops on every street corner and the DGS is not able to find pharmaceutical CBD. The legal fragility of the system chosen by the DGS was clearly established and a source of litigation. Either they are incompetent, or they want to ruin the experiment,” he confides to us.
By searching the call for tenders, which was available online, we also realize that the funding for the extension of the experiment was taken from the budget of the associations of patients victims of therapeutic accidents. Sign, if necessary, that the DGS takes very lightly the experimentation of therapeutic cannabis in France. A “scandalous and shameful” situation for Yann Bisiou.
From our understanding, the DGS also belatedly noticed that a product had not found a buyer in the context of the call for tenders which concerned the extension of the experiment, despite numerous warnings from manufacturers. She has since been trying to find solutions to avoid a shortage of products.
It would also be in this context that it hastily released and by bypassing the ANSM, normally competent on the subject, CBD-based drugs from the list of narcotics to place them on the list of poisonous substances, as advertised Nicolas Authier last week. This change in classification would be intended in particular to reduce import costs, the legal trade in “narcotics” being extremely controlled and expensive, and thus to facilitate the supply of experiments.
A change that could have been made before the shortage? And which could lead to a return of the missing oil to the patients? Within what time frame?
We are awaiting responses from the DGS and will complete this article as needed.
