GW Pharmaceuticals

As foreshadowed here, GW Pharmaceuticals has now launched its cannabis-based Sativex spray in the UK for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Sativex, which Porton Down-based GW has been developing for 11 years, is the world’s first cannabis medicine to be available on prescription and the UK is the first country in the world to grant it full regulatory authorisation, five years after its introduction for ‘named patients’ only. Its launch will trigger a £10m milestone payment to the AIM-quoted company from its partner, the German Bayer Schering group, and could signal a return to the black for GW, which lost £2.7m in the six months to March.

Sativex is coming to the UK market as a treatment for spasms and cramping associated with spasticity in MS patients. Bayer Schering is to market it on that basis in the UK and the rest of the European Union, apart from Spain, where a hoped-for separate launch in the autumn would trigger a £2.5m milestone payment from the Almirall drug group.

GW, steered by chairman Dr Geoffrey Guy and managing director Justin Gover, has adopted a different strategy for the key US market, where it is promoting Sativex as a treatment for cancer pain. The company says it expects Sativex to enter Phase III clinical trials there by the end of this year.

Highlighted by Growth Company Investor last year at 52.5p, GW shares recently touched 156p and now trade at 138p, down 3p this morning. Partial profit taking looks prudent, while retaining some for the potentially substantial further long-term gains.