Here’s what’s next now that the FDA has approved a cannabis drug for seizures

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the first cannabis-derived drug this week, however it will probably’t be bought till the Drug Enforcement Administration adjustments the way it classifies the particular compound used. So what’s next?

Epidiolex treats critical types of childhood epilepsy and incorporates the compound cannabidiol (CBD). Though CBD comes from cannabis, it received’t trigger anybody to get excessive; it’s the compound THC that is psychoactive. But as a result of it comes from cannabis and cannabis general is assessed as a Schedule I drug with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” pharmaceutical firms aren’t allowed to promote it except the DEA reclassifies CBD.

It is probably going that the DEA will reclassify CBD in the next 90 days, says Stephanie Yin, an analyst at Informa Pharma Intelligence. (Epidiolex producer GW Pharmaceuticals has said the same.) Most doubtless, based on Yin, it is going to be modified to Schedule IV or Schedule V, that are schedules that embrace different anti-seizure medicines and nervousness medication like Xanax and Klonopin.

This doesn’t imply that cannabis as a drug might be faraway from Schedule I although. Yin factors out that the FDA already approved two nausea medication — dronabinol and nabilone — that use artificial variations of THC. The DEA scheduled these medication as Schedule III and II, respectively, however nonetheless didn’t reschedule cannabis. Plus, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a press release that Epidiolex approval “is not an approval of marijuana or all of its components.”

If these artificial THC medication could be approved and rescheduled, and CBD could be rescheduled, what’s conserving the DEA from rescheduling cannabis itself? “Cannabis contains so many different compounds and strains,” explains Yin. “The FDA has just approved this singular product through stringent testing and doses and specific concentrations. It’s gone through rigorous clinical reviews and FDA review, but the FDA is likely to still crack down on claims made with other products.”

To be clear, there are already loads of CBD merchandise simply accessible, from dietary supplements to oils to various beauty products like soap. But it’s one factor to promote them as dietary supplements, and one other to promote them as medication. “You can get vitamin C from oranges at the grocery store, or you can get a clinical preparation of vitamin C to treat a disease, and those two items are treated very differently,” says Chris Stubbs, chief science officer of hemp farming and genetics firm GenCanna. Clinical CBD is far more tightly regulated.

Still, the reclassification will doubtless make medical cannabis extra authentic. Rite Aid, for instance, has already said it will fill prescriptions for Epidiolex, which is more likely to be accessible at pharmacies in the fall. (It received’t be accessible in dispensaries as a result of FDA-approved medication can solely be bought at locations with a pharmaceutical license.) And GW Pharmaceuticals is already investigating other CBD-derived drugs to deal with totally different types of epilepsy, in addition to types of mind most cancers and schizophrenia. “This approval is definitely going to encourage other companies to investigate [other cannabis] compounds for different diseases,” she says, “from pain to Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis to Tourettes’. Basically a whole spectrum of diseases.”