US: SYNTHETIC POT PILL OK'D FOR CHEMO PATIENTS

WASHINGTON -- Seventeen years after it was withdrawn from U.S.
markets, a synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana is
going back on sale as a prescription treatment for the vomiting and
nausea that often accompanies chemotherapy, its manufacturer said Tuesday.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International hopes to begin selling Cesamet
in the next two to three weeks, company president Wes Wheeler said.

The Costa Mesa, Calif., company received Food and Drug Administration
approval Monday to resume sales of the drug, which it bought from
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. in 2004. Valeant currently sells
the drug, also called nabilone, in Canada.

Lilly originally received FDA approval for nabilone in 1985 but
withdrew it from the market in 1989 for commercial reasons, Wheeler
said. Valeant, since purchasing the drug, has revised its label and
updated its manufacturing process, he added.

The drug will compete with Marinol, made by Belgium-based Solvay SA.
Marinol, another synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol, the
active ingredient in marijuana that's more commonly known as THC.

It also received FDA approval in 1985.Synthetic THC acts on the brain
like the THC in smoked marijuana, but it eliminates having to inhale
the otherwise harmful smoke contained in the illegal drug, Valeant said.