Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Dozens Of Applications To Study Marijuana's Effectiveness At Treating PTSD, Chronic Pain And More Sit In Limbo
The Wall Street Journal: Marijuana-Research Applications Go Nowhere At Justice Department
Two years after the Drug Enforcement Administration began accepting requests to grow marijuana for federally approved research, none have been answered, leaving more than two dozen applicants in limbo, people familiar with the process said. The future of the initiative ultimately rests with the DEA’s parent agency, the Justice Department, and officials under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime critic of marijuana use, aren’t eager to advance the applications, these people said. Mr. Sessions has stated publicly he is open to research on the drug but has offered no timeline for processing the applications. (Gurman, 9/8)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Reuters: GSK Says U.S. FDA Wants More Information On Pulmonary Drug
GlaxoSmithKline said on Friday that U.S. health authorities had asked for more information about its Nucala drug for use in combating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). GSK said it had received a complete response letter (CRL) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its application for mepolizumab - the generic name for Nucala - as an add-on treatment to inhaled corticosteroid-based maintenance treatment. (Schomberg, 9/7)
Boston Globe: Hope For New Treatments Buoys Macular Degeneration Patients
Sean Teare, a 48-year-old health care consultant from Duxbury, struggled to read menus in dimly lit restaurants. After a battery of tests, his optometrist told him he had age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, an eye disease that afflicts more than 9 million Americans and can cause serious vision loss. ...There’s currently no cure for the disorder, and no treatment for its most common form, which accounts for 85 percent of cases. (Weisman. 9/9)
