Source: Flickr user Matthew Kenwrick .
For more than 15 years, GW Pharmaceuticals has been researching marijuana cannabinoids (e.g. THC and CBD) in a bid to profit from pot. The company already has the THC-derived Sativex on the market in Europe as a treatment for multiple sclerosis spasticity, and it has a slate of clinical trials under way that are investigating THC and CBD's use across other indications. For now, however, medical marijuana's promise of profit has fallen short for the company.
Lacking demand Despite being approved back in 2010 and being available in 27 countries, sales of Sativex remain a trickle. In fact, sales were so small for the drug that the company didn't even bother breaking them out for investors in its just-released fiscal-first-quarter earnings release.
Since the company didn't update Sativex's sales numbers, investors are probably correct to assume that they haven't budged much from fiscal 2014's $1.5 million to $2 million quarterly pace. If that's true, then it's unlikely that Sativex will ever become a top seller -- at least not as a European MS spasticity drug.
Source: GW Pharmaceuticals.
Overcoming disappointment In January, Sativex's future as a cancer-pain treatment was somewhat dashed when GW Pharmaceuticals reported that data from the first of three phase 3 studies failed to outperform placebo. Although the company still has two additional Sativex cancer-pain trials ongoing, the failure of the first trial casts doubt on GW Pharmaceuticals' cannabinoid program and the company's ability to generate a significant revenue stream from it.
Investors will get more insight into GW Pharmaceuticals' opportunity in the cancer-pain indication when the second trial results become available in the second quarter; however, investors might be right to temper their expectations given that the second trial is identical in design to the failed first trial.
Instead, the company's best chance for success in the indication could prove to be the third trial, which was designed differently. Data from this third trial isn't expected until much later this year.
The rest is here:
After Marijuana Flops in Cancer Pain, Investors Look to the Future