HUNTINGTON’S & PARKINSON’S
Huntington’s is a degenerative illness that stops the brain
working overtime. Symptoms include personality changes,
diffi culty concentrating, stumbling, involuntary movements
and diffi culty breathing. The condition is usually fatal 15 to
20 years after symptoms start. The EHP-102 drug is also
being developed for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Commenting on both illnesses, and the potential for CBG,
Emerald Health president and chief executive offi cer, Jim
DeMesa, says:
“There is nothing on the market that changes the course of
Huntington’s. The jerky movements that are caused by the
disease can be suppressed with certain drugs, but these drugs
have serious side-effects. Some people use anti-psychotics off-
label to help with some of the issues, but all of these drugs are
for symptomatic relief and also come with side-effects.”
Studies have demonstrated neuroprotective properties in
CBG too. It is also a strong anti-infl ammatory and antioxidant.
According to Jim, EHP-102 enhances these effects by also
targeting receptors outside of the endocannabinoid system:
“CBG works primarily on the endocannabinoid system but
does not affect to any signifi cant degree some of the targets
that we’ve been able to create in our molecule that are
specifi c targets for neurodegenerative diseases. EHP-102 does
everything that CBG does as well on the endocannabinoid
system.
“We loosely term it ‘CBG on steroids’ because it’s so much
more potent.” Jim adds that they have essentially created the
entourage effect in a single molecule. There are other drugs
that target some of the same receptors, but they don’t affect
other things that are important to treating Huntington’s.
EHP aims to create medicines that offer far greater benefi ts
than naturally-derived cannabinoids can do.
“One person said it’s like the conversion of cannabinoids,
science and biology. If we can potentially reverse the
progression of these diseases that have no cure, then we
have a winner.”
EHP-102 offers other advantages over working with naturally-
derived cannabis medicines. It is a novel patented entity that
contains no traces of cannabis compounds and is therefore
not controlled under drugs regulations, removing barriers to
conduct clinical trials and to import and export.
“We’re currently in the formulation and manufacturing stage,
which is the fi rst step before the clinical enabling studies
that are in animals to make sure that the toxicity is low and
the pharmacokinetics are appropriate for use in humans.
Then we will go to the various regulatory authorities to apply
for human studies.”
EHP’s CBD-derived multiple sclerosis drug EHP-101 has
completed a Phase 1 human study and has now moved
into Phase 2. The timeline from pre-clinical research to
commercialisation can take as long as 10 years. However, as
Huntington’s is incurable and there’s nothing better on the
market, the orphan designation could speed up the process
for EHP-102 by a few years.
“We’re being contacted all the time [by] patients who
would like to be in the clinical trials. That’s one thing we
would certainly employ as our plan to help people with
Huntington’s.”
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