What does it mean to receive the "GW Pharmaceuticals" Royal Prize

Comparing the algorithm of actions of "GW Pharmaceuticals" in 2018 in the UK with those actions that they are conducting in 2021 on the territory of Ukraine, it is possible to draw conclusions about who is one of the main lobbyists for the adoption of legislation, according to which the state structures of Ukraine as well as before The UK is lobbying for opportunities not for individuals (consumers / patients) to use the leaves and inflorescences of therapeutic hemp for industrial purposes, but are preparing a regulatory framework that artificially “drives potential customers” into a pharmacy, where only pharmacological preparations will be sold in the near future ” GW Pharmaceuticals ”.

At the end of 2018, on the pages of the specialized electronic edition of national cannabis growers, it was described “ How is the experience of EU cannabinoid therapy useful for Ukrainian patients ?”. In particular, attention was focused on how the British "GW Pharmaceuticals" lobbied for the rules that prohibit the citizens of the country from the non-prescription use of therapeutic cannabis. The mechanism of this kind of amendment of the current legislation used for this is extremely simple, “GW Pharmaceuticals” financed a very serious PR campaign aimed at legalizing the possibility of using cannabis for medical purposes and, having enlisted the support of the public at the last moment, lobbied exactly those formulations according to which the use plants are possible exclusively by prescription. Naturally, English doctors prescribe pharmacological agents for patients, legalized in the UK. After British cannabis activists, as well as patients seeking the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, GW Pharmaceuticals took advantage of, an active PR campaign touting the therapeutic benefits of cannabisa was phased out. As a result, the country's mass media actively advertise pharmaceutical preparations exclusively under the brand name “GW Pharmaceuticals”.

A British pharmaceutical company specializing in the production of hemp-based pharmaceuticals receives an award that demonstrates how important this industry has been to the British economy over the past 20 years. The highlight of the company's production activity is the fact that for most of its existence, “GW Pharmaceuticals” produces medicinal products based on the therapeutic properties of the hemp plant, not for domestic consumption, but for export. It is thanks to this feature that over the past decade, the UK has become the country of the most exporting of medical cannabis in the world (even in comparison with the Netherlands and Canada).

The success of a British pharmaceutical company has several components at once that are not inherent in other economically developed countries of the world:

- support by the government structures of Great Britain exclusively for “GW Pharmaceuticals” while banning the work of similar companies led to the actual monopolization of this activity in the country's market. According to a number of British experts, this kind of situation is due to the fact that the husband of the former British Prime Minister Theresa May is a shareholder of GW Pharmaceuticals;

- the lack of a regulatory framework regulating the possibility of using the therapeutic properties of cannabis in the domestic market, in fact, initially cut off the ability of other foreign companies to enter the British market with similar products. Only in some cases can parents of young patients obtain permission for individual import of hemp-based medicinal products in Canada or Holland;

- lobbying the interests of "GW Pharmaceuticals" by government officials of Great Britain, which led to the fact that at the moment it is possible to use only drugs produced by the above British company on the domestic market;

- Amendments to the current regulatory framework of the UK, suggesting regulation of the possibility of using the therapeutic properties of cannabis at the moment, puts GW Pharmaceuticals in a privileged position over any other British companies that are currently trying to enter this market. Only by the end of 2021, a second national company may appear in the UK, which will be able to legally process and sell legal medical cannabis.

It should be noted that the first three points that determined the success of "GW Pharmaceuticals" on the market led to the fact that for a long period of time in the UK this company was the only viable structure that specialized in the cultivation and processing of medical hemp.

Commentary of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"

Another example of GW Pharmaceuticals lobbying its interests in the UK market is the fact that, on the one hand, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has ruled out the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain (the most common syndrome, with which is prescribed for cannabis treatments in Germany, Canada and the United States), with other drugs manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals primarily intended to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. 

And now we recall the widely advertised PR-actions that over the past three years have accompanied the bill on the need to use hemp for medical purposes, lobbied at the level of the Verkhovna Rada and the adopted Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 324 dated April 7, 2021, according to which in our the country has already regulated the use of medicinal products manufactured by “GW Pharmaceuticals”. Just by comparing the algorithm of actions of the above English company in 2018 in the UK with those actions that they hold in 2021 in Ukraine, one can draw conclusions about who is one of the main lobbyists for the adoption of legislation, according to which the state structures of Ukraine, as well as Previously, the UK is lobbying for opportunities not for individuals (consumers / patients) to use the leaves and inflorescences of therapeutic hemp for industrial purposes, but are preparing a regulatory framework that artificially “drives potential customers” into a pharmacy, where only pharmacological preparations will be sold in the near future GW Pharmaceuticals.