GW Pharma surges on positive results from schizophrenia drug trial

Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals surged after the company announced positive top-line results from an exploratory Phase 2a placebo-controlled clinical trial of Cannabidiol (CBD) for the treatment of schizophrenia.

GW said the 88 patients involved the trial had previously failed to respond adequately to first line anti-psychotic medications. It said that over a series of endpoints, CBD was consistently superior to placebo and the proportion of respondents was higher than that of participants on the placebo.

Chief executive officer Justin Glover said: “These findings further reinforce the potential role of cannabinoids in the field of neuropsychiatric disease.

“We believe that the signals of efficacy demonstrated in this trial, together with a notably reassuring safety profile, provide GW with the prospect of new and distinct cannabinoid neuropsychiatric product pipeline opportunity. Similar to our approach for Epidiolex, we believe that our future research in this area may lie within pediatric orphan neuropsychiatric indications and we intend to explore this as a focus for future trials."

The trial followed extensive pre-clinical research conducted by GW since 2007 into the effects of cannabinoids in psychiatric disease. This research showed CBD to have notable anti-psychotic effects in accepted pre-clinical models of schizophrenia, and also provided indicators that there is potential to enhance the effect of CBD with additional cannabinoids.

At 1445 BST, GW shares were up 13% at 635p.