Australian medicinal cannabis company Zelira Therapeutics Limited (Zelira) and the Parkinson’s Foundation (Foundation) are joining forces to discover more about how people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) currently use medical cannabis and what its perceived benefits might be.
Zelira and the Foundation this week announced a partnership focused on gathering insights from people with PD who use cannabis and hemp therapies,
The collaboration will utilize Zelira’s experience in pharmaceutical and condition-specific medical cannabis product development and the Foundation’s comprehension of the science of PD and its most common symptoms.
“Many people with Parkinson’s disease are seeking help with their symptoms by trying various forms of medical cannabis,” says Parkinson’s Foundation President and CEO John Lehr. “The volume and frequency of questions Parkinson’s Foundation receive from people with Parkinson’s regarding the safety and impact of medical cannabis and CBD has led us to examine this public health issue more fully and to seek collaborations with leaders in the field from academia, government, advocacy groups and industry to provide the most accurate information possible.”
Lehr says that Zelira therapeutics is committed to helping people with Parkinson’s understand how they might incorporate medical cannabis into their lives to manage their daily symptoms.
As part of the new collaboration, Zelira and the Foundation will be consulting on the development of a survey to inquire as to why and how PD patients might be using medical cannabis and hemp-derived CBD products to treat their symptoms.
The results will be reviewed as they relate to a yet-to-be-conducted clinical trial on the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis use by people with PD.
Zelira will also be incorporating insights from the survey for the development of clinically-validated medical cannabis and hemp-derived CBD medicines for PD patients in the future as well as providing guidance in regards to cannabinoid-based treatment alternatives.
Zelira CBO Tom Borger says that the lack of definitive studies informing clinicians and people with PD about the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis is a challenge for PD patients.
Borger says that one of the survey’s objectives is to offer guidance to people with PD about the need for clinically-validated cannabis-derived medicines that might address their symptoms
Prior to their collaboration with the Parkinson’s Foundation, Zelira participated in the organization’s Medical Cannabis Conference in 2019.
