Marissa was admitted for a clinical trial Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She was suffering from childhood epilepsy. In last three years, doctors were giving her a liquid anti-seizure drug made from a component of marijuana. In this period, a rapid improvement was seen in her health condition. Now, the 21-year-old has some weeks in which she doesn’t have any seizures. The drug that helped Marissa, called Epidiolex.
This drug is on the verge of becoming the first drug approved by the FDA that is derived from marijuana. In April, an advisory committee unanimously recommended approval of the drug for two of the most severe types of childhood epilepsy, and the agency is expected to render its decision by the end of this month.
Epidiolex is an oral solution containing highly purified CBD, which is one of the scores of chemicals in the cannabis plant. Justin Gover, chief executive of GW Pharmaceuticals said that cannabis offers multiple medical benefits and FDA approval would be a milestone.
The FDA previously has cleared medications containing synthetic versions of THC for nausea for patients getting chemotherapy and for other uses, but it has not approved any drug derived from the plant itself.
Igor Grant, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Diego and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, said an FDA approval for Epidiolex might spur companies to investigate CBD for other purposes too.

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