First medicinal cannabis product to be available from October

THE FIRST MEDICAL cannabis product made available through the HSE will be available to patients next month, it has been confirmed.

The HSE said that CannEpil, a cannabidiol (CBD) -based drug, will be available in October under its Medical Cannabis Access Program (MCAP).

It comes after the Ministry of Health made cannabis use a part of its health service earlier this year.

It is available to a limited number of patients and can be obtained by a specialist doctor with the correct prescription.

Shaun Flanagan, HSE’s deputy national director of reimbursement services, said one product, CannEpil, is expected to be launched later this October.

“The suppliers of the second product, Tilray Oral Solutions, have announced their intention to supply the Irish market, but have not yet confirmed when the product will be available,” Flanagan told the Oireachtas Health Committee.

In Ireland, cannabis is a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

In January, Health Secretary Stephen Donnelly secured funding for the program and outlined how patients would gain access to medical cannabis through the HSE.

Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan asked whether their system was “adequately protected by firewalls” to prevent medicine from falling into the “wrong hands” and intended solely for medical purposes.

Lorraine Nolan, chief executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), said she was satisfied that the system was in line with its 2017 recommendations.

“First and foremost, these MCAP products are not drugs in the traditional sense that you and I are familiar with,” said Ms. Nolan.

“This is a very limited form of access for the three diseases mentioned, but what is really important is a cascade in terms of progression of treatment to MCAP.

“These patients must have exhausted all available options.

“In this context, in my opinion, there are different trade-offs between benefit and risk and we are satisfied with the program.

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“Every patient enrolled in the MCAP program must be initiated by a counselor and the enrollment process has been described for each patient. Then there is a treatment program that needs to be included in your medical record.

“That really is the background to the decision to include them in the program, the product they will be using and their dosage. Again, it is really important to be in agreement about the expected outcome in terms of improvements.

“There is a monitoring plan for the patient that is monitored at regular intervals to ensure that these improvements are actually achieved.

“There is also the overriding principle that everyone who starts with one of these products starts low and gets slow, that is, the dosage starts at the lowest level and then works upwards.”

Solidarity – People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who has long advocated the use of medicinal cannabis in Ireland, said: “The long walk here has been frustrating for the people.

“People will scratch their heads and say, ‘Why did it take so long to start this process?’

“The good news is that the process will begin under prescription in a few weeks.”

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/30/first-medicinal-cannabis-product-to-be-available-from-october/