The European Commission has approved Epidyolex (cannabidiol) as an add-on therapy to clobazam (brand names Onfi and Sympazan) for the treatment of seizures associated with Dravet syndrome and Lennox?Gastaut syndrome (LGS) in patients 2 and older.
This decision, which follows the favorable opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use — an arm of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) — is valid in all 28 E.U. member countries, along with Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had reached a similar decision to approve the treatment, under the brand name Epidiolex, in June 2018.
GW Pharmaceuticals’ Epidyolex is a purified and oral form of cannabidiol (CBD), the most common non-psychoactive cannabinoid compound in the cannabis plant. CBD is able to mimic natural compounds by acting on brain receptors, which may cause seizures when faulty.