CBD in the Israeli health basket - By Ziv Genesove

Each year the state of Israel is refreshing the “health basket” - a list of medical services and medicines that are being provided to citizens with significant funding. The discussions regarding the compiling of the list are naturally accompanied by emotional debates due to the sensitivity of the issue, and the many factors concerned with the matter - especially patients in need of expensive medical care and of course the Pharmaceutical companies themselves.

This year, a cannabis-based drug entered the basket for the first time, but many patients and local cannabis companies are protesting that cannabis oil that carries the same key ingredient (CBD) stays outside of it.

Scope of financing: Tens of millions of shekels every year

The committee that discussed the issue decided to add the drug “EPIDIOLEX” to the Israeli health basket. This is the first drug in the world to receive FDA approval and has been officially recognized for the treatment of diseases such as Tuberous Sclerosis, Darvet Syndrome, and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome - rare and severe types of epilepsy that cause severe seizures.

Today, Israel has approximately 450 patients suffering from these syndromes and medical situations, while the cost of the treatment through the drug is estimated at approximately 68 thousand Shekels per year (almost 15 thousand GBP), the scope of government funding per patient is estimated at approximately 30 million Shekels per year.

The drug is marketed in Israel by the “New-Pharm” company, which has recently entered the field of Cannabis cultivation and production when she joined hands with the Israeli cannabis company “Intelicanna”. The two plan to set up an online network for medical cannabis deliveries, alongside the regular cannabis farms.

The natural form is more effective

Although the introduction of a cannabis-based medication to the Israeli “Health basket”  is supposed to be good news, many patients, as well as some cannabis companies, are protesting about the fact that “Full-spectrum” CBD oil (which contains additional cannabinoids) did not enter the basket.

Although studies have shown that treatment with “EPIDIOLEX” can reduce the number of epileptic seizures by about 40% among patients with Dravet syndrome, at the same time, several other studies had proved that “Full-spectrum” CBD oil has better efficiency in treating epilepsy compared to treating with only the Individual CBD - but since cannabis is not recognized officially as a medicine (and neither is cannabis oil), the committee refuses to add it to the health basket.

As mentioned, a company named “New-Pharm” markets the “EPIDIOLEX” in Israel - this company had resisted for many years the idea of enabling the use of medical cannabis flowers and operated behind the scenes to limit the activities of other companies in the industry. They have been accused of turning to lobbyists to persuade doctors to sell the “Sativex” to their patients, but without success, “forcing” them to enter the field of cannabis itself.Last February it was reported that the GW Pharmaceutical company had been acquired at 7.2 billion dollars by the American Pharmaceutical Corporation Jazz.