An experiment with therapeutic cannabis has been taking place in France for almost a year. A committee has just been set up to lay down the rules for the cultivation of this plant and the development of medicines within the framework of a French sector.
- Experimentation with therapeutic cannabis in France was authorized in March 2021
- So far the products used are all imported from abroad
- A committee has just been set up for the creation of a French therapeutic cannabis sector
Since the authorization granted in March 2021, a two-year experiment on the use of therapeutic cannabis involving 3,000 patients has started in France. But at present, all the patients treated are treated with imported products, in particular from Canada, Australia, Portugal or Israel. When will there be therapeutic cannabis “made in France”? While a decree has just authorized the cultivation of this plant for medical purposes, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) has just set up a committee who will precisely be responsible for defining the rules applicable to this culture and the specifications of the cannabis-based drugs that will thus be produced by a French sector.
A French branch
This committee, made up of representatives from the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Economy and the Interior, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment and the Council of the Order of Pharmacists, has four months to reflect, in the words of the ANSM press release, “on the specifications of the production chain, from the plant to the drug”. This would lay the foundations for the creation of a French sector in this field.
THC and CBD levels
The work of this committee will have to make it possible to specify which will be the varieties of plants used and especially their content in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the molecule of cannabis which gives it its psychotropic effects, and in cannabidiol (CBD) the molecule resulting from the same plant. but without narcotic effect and moreover already widely used and marketed in the form of comfort products.
The traceability standards for these plants and the products that will be derived from them, the controls that will be carried out on the cultivation sites and of course the pharmaceutical quality criteria for cannabis-based medicines will also be examined.
For patients with serious illnesses
As a reminder, the experience on the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes currently concerns in France only patients suffering from serious illness, multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain, side effects of chemotherapy or people in palliative care.
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