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DrugScreening.org


 
THC-Based Painkiller Performs Poorly in Trials
April 9, 2008

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News Summary

Sativex, a painkiller based on the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, barely outperformed a placebo in a clinical study, casting the future of the drug in doubt, the Daily Mail reported April 8.

U.K.-based GW Pharmaceuticals was testing the drug, formulated as an oral spray, as a painkiller for multiple-sclerosis patients. But while patients reported that their pain was reduced by about 30 percent when taking Sativex, similar results were reported by a group receiving a placebo.

The news caused a sharp drop in GW's stock price.

Sativex already is on the market in Canada as a painkiller. Company officials said the drug's poor showing could be explained by an "unexpectedly strong placebo response."

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Steve Coulter on 14 Apr 08 08:34 AM EDT
The actual press release should have been this journalist's source, not another news report. See: http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?StoryId=91890 The headlines sound pretty damning, but the agent performed almost as well as anything that's ever been studied. It's really not just corporate spin to talk about the strong placebo effect in the other arm of the study. Since we can't legally (or ethically) market placebos any more, a promising role remains for Sativex. Remember that a range of other studies demonstrate effectiveness in other populations at levels that do reach statistical significance. The level of *clinical significance* in this study is impressive. Steve Coulter, MD SteveMDFP -at- gmail -dot- com

Posted by John French on 10 Apr 08 02:07 PM EDT
Actually, the results were very close to being statistically significant, and only the strongly positive response to placebo in the other group kept it from being significant. So in fact, the drug performed well, not poorly, as this article claims. Shame on the author for not understanding how clinical trials work. The problem with using placebo in trials dealing with pain is often of this type.

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