MMJ Files US Patent for Multiple Sclerosis Cannabinoid Treatment

MMJ International Holdings has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for new pharmaceutical compounds and methods to treat and prevent symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other diseases responsive to cannabinoids.

The patent covers MMJ BioScience’s intellectual property portfolio, which comprises several patent families with issued or pending claims regarding plants, plant extracts, plant variety rights, pharmaceutical formulations, patient monitoring technology and drug delivery methods.

MMJ BioScience is an affiliate of MMJ International Holdings, which is based in Reston, Virginia.

The filing of these patents protects the delivery of a particular product formulation to be tested in a Phase 2 clinical trial for MS.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, executive director of the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium, will lead this Phase 2 study with the guidance of Parexel, a clinical research organization.

Weinstock-Guttman is a neurology professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. MMJ hired her Nov. 8 as principal investigator of MMJ’s clinical trials exploring potential therapeutic applications of cannabinoids in progressive MS patients.

The trial, which has won U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, will be MMJ’s first study of cannabis-based medicines involving MS and related forms of pain and spasticity. As such, several hundred patients will receive proprietary formulations of cannabis-based medicine via an oral gel cap over 18 to 24 months. The trial will take place in New York and should begin by early 2018.

“Our initiation of the Phase 2 clinical trial programs and the eventual FDA Fast Track Designation for progressive multiple sclerosis signify important steps forward in MMJ BioScience’s ongoing commitment to investigating innovative scientific approaches with the hope of bringing new treatment options to patients,” Timothy Moynahan, chairman of MMJ BioScience, said in a press release.

“We believe that this matrix of intellectual property provides MMJ Bioscience with a unique market position to benefit from the rich opportunities within the field of cannabinoid therapeutics,” Moynahan added.