Dr. Ned Sharpless Appointed Temporary FDA Commissioner .....
The temporary appointiment of Dr. Ned Sharpless replacing Gottlieb may not be a serious cause toward worry ..... relative to CBD issues ..... though Trump administration policy has been known to "shape-shift" shortly after announcements of initial intentions .....
Apparently ..... Dr. Sharpless recognizes the need to remove restraints from Cannabis research and realizes the plant's history of use stretches back thousands of years .....
From my perspective ..... the Sharpless appointment may have the potential to "open the doors" relative to Big-Pharma becoming a more active participant in the emergent cannabis-hemp Industry ..... and they happen to be the potential "players" with multi-billion dollar budgets ..... A great deal of "profit potential" sits on the table for savvy Industry concerns to work with.....
Most casual observers have noticed the explosive CBD demand in the public sector empowered by Mitch McConnel's recent Hemp Farm Bill ..... finally making hemp a legal agricultural commodity .....
A few other FDA candidates on the list of potential permanent appointments give some cause for optimism relative to a more liberal CBD regultory outlook .....
What the Next FDA Director Actually Means for Marijuana Companies Discussion
Cannabis companies have taken a big dive recently. Albeit I fault the decline partly and perhaps unjustly to the general ebbing of the Healthcare Sector, there has been another suspected.
Tony Owusu, author with Cramer’s The Street, blames Aurora’s ($ACB) 4% drop today on the pending resignation of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) head Scott Gottlieb. To be honest, I don’t know what is more shocking: Gottlieb’s suspiciously abrupt announcement to leave the FDA hours after attacking major corporations for enabling minors to smoke or Cramer’s minion thinking that this resignation would disrupt the Cannabis Sector.
Gottlieb isn’t exactly a proponent of marijuana. Although the FDA has approved cannabidiol-based medications like GW Pharmaceuticals' ($GWPH) Epidiolex, in a Novemeber 2018 interview on CNBC, Gottlieb repudiates: “We have approved compounds derived from marijuana but there is no demonstrated medical use for botanical marijuana.” Gottlieb, the hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana users would disagree with you.
In fact, the primary candidate to take Gottlieb’s roll, Amy Abernethy, current principal deputy commissioner the FDA is more than likely a supporter. Abernethy, who was just recently brought on the FDA is a researcher who spent a majority of her academic career at Duke. During her time as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Nursing and Director of the Palliative Care Clinical Research Initiative at the university, Abernethy helped edit a paper by Bill H. McCarberg titled, “Cannabinoids - Their Role in Pain and Palliation.” Understanding that Abernethy, who is also a former Disney Can-Can dancer, has devoted much of her time in modern research and assisted in publishing articles advocating the use of cannabis in pain management, it is plausible that marijuana regulation will likely loosen if she heads the FDA.
Norman Sharpless (Ned), current director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is another contender for Gottlieb’s position. In the 1980’s Ned coauthored articles that discussed marijuana's euphorigenic properties in rats. Today, the NCI’s website admits, “cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years.. promoted for reported analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and anticonvulsant effects.” Their website even states that physicians were the principal opponents of the Marihuana Tax Act 1937 which made cannabis more difficult to procure. As many cancer patients are users of medicinal marijuana and NCI’s website seems to recognize the benefits of both THC and CBD, Ned Sharpless would likely clear the way for healthcare providers to research and develop cannabis medication.
Next on the list is Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, FDA’s parent agency. Giroir has been extremely public about removing CBD from DEA’s Schedule 1 status writing that “CBD and its salts [should] be controlled in Schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act." Schedule V drugs demonstrate medical values and are deemed unlikely to cause harm, abuse, or addiction.
Janet Woodcock is another prospect for the position. Currently heading the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research CDER, Woodcock has rejected proposals by Drug Watch International to place marijuana on another list of restricted substances. She is already part of the team that is working with companies to fast track effective medications including those containing CBD.
So why, Tony Owusu? Why do you think that Gottlieb’s resignation is cause for cannabis investors to panic? Does it really justify a massive selloff like we saw today? Is it really any cause for concern? The FDA already admits that marijuana has been known for medical use for over 3,000 years despite what the DEA says. Marijuana has unjustly been classified as Schedule 1, 49 years ago. Perhaps 50 years is enough. It is more than likely that next head of the FDA that replaces Gottlieb will not only help fast track cannabis medications but also ease most restrictions on CBD products.
