The Dutch Government will donate $1.5M to fund CBD and Epilepsy Study

The UMC Utrecht Brain Center will receive approximately $1.5 million (EUR1.4million) from the Dutch government in collaboration with other organizations in the Netherlands. The study was announced by Bedrocan on March 20. Previous research has shown that CBD reduces seizures in children with epilepsy-related disorders. U.K.-based Cannabis Health News reports, that the government’s Good Use of Medicines program will allow researchers to launch a four year research project on the effects of CBD oil on children with severe epilepsy. This will be done using whole-plant high CBD oil, Bedrolite, which is made from cannabis grown by Bedrocan. The trial, which will begin in the summer, will have fifty participants. The trial will begin with 50 participants by the end. Researchers will examine whether the oil reduces seizures’ frequency. They will also monitor other “quality-of-life indicators” such as seizure duration, sleep and alertness. Patients must not have used CBD oil before for epilepsy or seizures. They must also have at least eight seizures per week. “Our research is individual-oriented. Floor Jansen (a pediatric neurologist) is the lead researcher. Instead of looking at a whole group, we focus on whether the drug is effective for each patient. “We want to see if the number of attacks drops, but we also look at other important outcomes for patients. Rare, difficult forms of epilepsy are not well studied. Intractable Epilepsy, a charity that helps families to purchase private cannabis prescriptions, will focus on individual cases rather than a group. Jo Griffiths, chairwoman of Intractable Epilepsy, stated that she would like the U.K. to match the EUR1.4million for randomized control studies (RCTs), on Bedrocan products. Griffiths stated that Intractable Epilepsy provides support for families who have to pay private medicinal cannabis costs. Some families can’t afford private consultations. The government and health providers agree that RCTs of gold standard are necessary to ensure that every child with epilepsy and young adult with it can have access to full-extract medicinal marijuana. We are asking the U.K. government for a match of the EUR1.4 million Dutch government’s trials and to run an NHS trial using these oils.” She added that “We would like to see the UK RCT recommended by the Health Select Committee” and that the NHS would participate in the observational trial for patients who are already taking full-extract oils.