The Ananda company has just started clinical trials to use Nantheia ATL5. This drug, which contains a high dosage of CBD, could perhaps be used to help people addicted to opioids!
Coming from Colorado, this biotech has just received the authorization of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which represents the high authority of health in America. The clinical trial will be supervised by UCLA (University of California).
A CBD drug acting as a substitute for opioids
Concretely, the Nantheia ATL5 is a capsule containing 100 mg of CBD. If the studies conducted on it are conclusive, this drug could potentially replace opioids in the treatment of patients suffering from chronic pain.
According to the results of this study, this CBD drug could be on the same rank as Epidiolex. Note that today, GW Pharma’s liquid solution is the only CBD-based medication authorized in both the United States and the European Union!
Sohail Zaidi, CEO of Ananda, is delighted with this news, and explains: “The authorization to conduct a clinical trial further strengthens our goal of developing CBD as a therapy for several diseases”.
For Edith London, the psychiatrist leading the trials, the approval of this work is a critical step in finding solutions to the opioid-induced crisis.
The ravages of opioids
The current opioid crisis in the U.S. is unprecedented in its severity. These drugs, such as Fentanyl or Oxycodone, produce effects that are very similar to those of opium. They are therefore useful when it comes to alleviating chronic pain, but the downside is very high, as these drugs are also very addictive, and harmful to health. Their use in high doses can be fatal, which is why every year there are about 50,000 deaths related to their use in the United States! It is in this context that President Donal Trump decreed that there was a public health emergency during 2017.
It is thus without real surprise that the FDA places a lot of hopes in the Nantheia ATL5. Highly dosed in CBD, this drug candidate could be used to relieve chronic pain. Indeed, its molecule has anti-inflammatory virtues that are no longer to prove, and unlike opioids, it does not cause any addictive effect, and is not psychoactive!
The effects of this CBD drug would be very similar to those of Fentanyl or Oxycodone, but without their drawbacks! CBD in too high a dose is not ideal for liver health, but this is in no way comparable to the devastating effects of opioids.
The clinical trial will be fully funded by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), which is also very excited about this promising project!