CANNABIS-BASED MEDICINE AVAILABLE WITHIN TWO YEARS

A SMALL Porton Down-based company will make history when, if all goes to
plan, it starts supplying Britain's NHS with the world's first
cannabis-based medicine within the next two years.

Last Monday, shares in biotechnology company GW Pharmaceuticals surged more
than 12% to 147p after the market realised the implications of government
moves to clear the way for the introduction of cannabis derivatives as NHS
medicines for relieving multiple sclerosis and to ease pain after operations.

The government will also ask the National Institute for Clinical Excellence
to begin assessing next year whether the treatments are effective and worth
the money they will cost the NHS. If the process of trials, licensing and
NICE approval is completed on time, the painkillers could be available on
prescription by 2004 or 2005.

GW Pharmaceuticals' managing director, Justin Gover, believes the
department of health's intention to put forward medicines not yet even
approved by the Medicines Control Agency is further evidence of the
government's intention to make cannabis-based treatments available on the
NHS in the fastest possible time.

The lead drug being tested by GW is an under-the-tongue spray for relief
from multiple sclerosis, currently in phase III clinical trials. It is
expected to be ready for approval by the MCA in 2003.

GW's chairman, Geoffrey Guy, a qualified doctor and serial entrepreneur,
formed the company three years ago with Home Office backing. It is the only
company licensed in the UK to develop cannabis for medicinal purposes.

GW grows 15 tonnes of cannabis a year in secure greenhouses at a secret
location. The secrecy surrounding the company's activities has not deterred
investors who have seen their investments surge. When GW floated on the
Alternative Investment Market last June, the issue was oversubscribed more
than six times. The firm raised £25m.

Gover stresses GW has never received government funding and has followed
the same type of business plan as those of other biotechnology companies.
But, unlike many of its competitors, GW can boast a cash balance of just
under £26m, all of which is being used to fund organic growth.

Potential proceeds should not be underestimated: the worldwide market for
pain control is estimated at between £7.8bn and £10.6bn. In Britain there
are thought to be about 85,000 people with multiple sclerosis.

To develop its drugs, the company extracts "cannabinoids" - molecules found
in the plant - and other constituents of cannabis, which are incorporated
into delivery technologies such as inhalers.

Cannabinoids have a number of properties such as mitigating pain, spasm and
sleep problems. The plants are bred to exhibit specific molecules which
have different therapeutic effects. The company is quick to stress that its
products, once available, will not give patients the "high" enjoyed by
cannabis smokers.