SATIVEX. REMÉDIO FEITO A PARTIR DA CANNABIS SATIVA, PARA ESCLEROSE MÚLTIPLA É EFICAZ, MAS CARO. E o Brasil, signatário de tratados internacionais, não pode autorizar a venda ou a pesquisa.

Reportagem publicada no jornal O Estado de S.Paulo trata do lançamento de um remédio para pacientes com esclerose múltipla à base de um princípio ativo retirado da planta cannabis sativa. Trata-se do sativex, produzido pela GW Pharma, que será vendido nos EUA e Europa.

O psiquiatra do Programa Interdisciplinar de Estudos de Álcool e Drogas (Grea) da Universidade de São Paulo, Hercílio Pereira de Oliveira Júnior, disse: “O medicamento tem estudo clínico, existem proporções corretas das substâncias usadas, imprescindíveis ao seu funcionamento”, Para ele, ao contrário do remédio, a droga ilícita não tem padrões de equilíbrio entre os substratos terapêuticos e pode causar danos à saúde de quem a consome: “Pode ampliar a ansiedade, causar um estado depressivo e psicótico, com alucinações, e problemas pulmonares provocados pelo ato de fumar.”

O Sativex, por exemplo, não é vendido como cigarro – e sim na forma de um spray. Sua composição reúne apenas dois substratos da maconha: o delta9-tetraidrocanabinol e o canabidiol. “Não causa mais ou menos dependência do que calmantes e antidepressivos.

 A dependência não é argumento considerável para proibir até mesmo a pesquisa”, diz Dartiu Xavier da Silveira, professor livre-docente em Psiquiatria da Universidade Federal de São Paulo. A comercialização do Sativex ainda não foi autorizada pela Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária.

LINK O ESTADO/JT ABAIXO

SATIVEX PROMISES PAIN RELIEF WHERE OTHER DRUGS HAVE FAILED  

However, it is more expensive than other drugs and many health authorities are reluctant to pay for it

For hundreds of thousands of MS patients with spasticity (muscle stiffness), Sativex promises pain relief where other drugs have failed. Gover says: "Picking up a teaspoon can be a problem and painful for people with MS. Sativex relieves the symptoms and improves sleep."

However, it is more expensive than other drugs and many health authorities are reluctant to pay for it. A 10ml bottle (equating to 90 sprays) costs pounds 125, about pounds 11 a day for the average user. Health authorities in the west and east Midlands and the south-west, including Cornwall and Devon, have come out against Sativex, saying it is not cost-effective.

This means that even though neurologists can make special applications to prescribe Sativex for MS patients with spasticity for whom other medicines do not work, applications are unlikely to be approved by primary care trusts in regions when money is tight. Nicola Russell, director of services at the MS Trust, says this is short-sighted: "If someone gets a pressure sore or falls over, the cost to the NHS is huge. The Trust believes that for a small number of people who have been assessed as appropriate by an MS specialist consultant, the NHS should be willing to fund Sativex."

Until GW won full approval for the drug in the UK last June, patients could be prescribed Sativex on a case-by-case basis - the "named patient programme" - and more than 90% of PCTs paid for it on the NHS. But public spending cuts have turned the availability of the spray, which is sold by GW's partner Bayer in the UK, into a postcode lottery. In contrast, in Spain the state healthcare system will pay for the drug.

 "The methods by which cost-effectiveness is evaluated are very poor," says John Zajicek, professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Plymouth. "Where health budgets are being squeezed, any excuse not to make new medicines available is being used. I have written prescriptions [for Sativex], but have been told to stop writing them, even for people who are already on it. This is forcing people into using illegal sources again."

Read more about Sativex at:

http://www.therapeuticsdaily.com/news/article.cfm?contentValue=1987467&contentType=sentryarticle&channelID=29

Leia a matéria integral em:

http://blogs.estadao.com.br/jt-cidades/medicos-defendem-maconha-terapeutica/