HEALTH - EU Approves Australian Firm to Sell Medical Cannabis for Pets

Creso Pharma, an Australian pharmaceutical developer, has received the European Union's first ever health registration to commercialise medical cannabis for pets.

The company is now in the process of applying for a global import and export license as it aims to sell two cannabidiol-based pet products by April 2017.

The products, essentially food additives for horses and dogs, are designed to help target behavioural disorders including anxiety and noise phobias as well as chronic pain, arthritis and diabetes.

Medical cannabis refers to the use of cannabis and its constituent cannabinoids, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), as medical therapy to treat disease or alleviate symptoms.

The plant contains more than 460 compounds. At least 80 of these are cannabinoids: active chemical compounds that interact with cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

According to their website, Creso Pharma is "committed to bringing vast cannabinoid based therapeutic opportunities to human and animal health."

Chief executive and co-founder Miri Halperin Wernli said the registration marked a huge milestone for cannabis-based therapies, with the market currently lacking a lot of therapeutic alternatives for vets and pet owners.

"Many of the ones available are human-based medicines that have been poorly adapted for animals," Dr Wernli said in a statement.

"Our unique CBD-based nutraceutical products are developed specifically for companion animals and are an alternative therapeutic options to a number of common medical conditions among pets that often remain poorly treated."

There is, of course, much debate over the effectiveness of cannabis based products on human and animal medical conditions.

"At some point in time they may be useful, but I would only recommend them once they've been studied appropriately and we know for sure what the safety profile of these kinds of things are in pets," Shane Bateman, associate professor at the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, told CBC.

It is estimated that the global Cannabis market will reach US$50 billion in the US and US$200 billion globally by 2018.

RESEARCH - Cancer Trial With Canines Could Also Help Humans

(Evan Jost, Go Fund Me)

Evan Jost found the first clue of horror to come in 2015 when he noticed his dog had swollen lymph nodes.

Given the pair had been constant companions since the marine veteran returned from Iraq and brought the puppy home – the subsequent diagnosis that six-year-old Grayson had lymphoma and was expected to survive just a few weeks was devastating.

Their luck changed when Jost hooked up with UC Davis – which touts America's top-rated veterinary school of medicine and is home to a nationally designated comprehensive cancer facility where veterinarians and physicians team up to search for medical miracles.

“They told me about the clinical trials and it seemed really interesting,” Jost says. It also offered hope.

Grayson was enrolled in a trial of a new formulation of doxorubicin, a drug widely used to treat lymphoma and other cancers in humans, which can have toxic effects on the heart. A new formulation, developed at UC Davis, packages doxorubicin inside tiny particles to ideally carry the drug more directly to the tumor and reduce side effects on other tissues.

“We’re trying to create a formulation that will work better against cancer and be safer to give to our dogs, cats and people as well,” says Jenna Burton, who heads the trial and is a UC Davis assistant professor of clinical medical oncology.

“We really need better treatment options, not only for dogs, but also for people. While the cure rates are better in people, many people diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma will die from their cancer or suffer long-term side effects secondary to the drugs used to treat it.”

While the lymphoma did not vanish, the beagle got better with four infusions putting the disease into remission.

Although in its early days, the new doxorubicin formula and its current trial will examine how well the micro-packaged drug is tolerated and could mean larger clinical trials with dogs and ultimately, humans.

It highlights just one case where studies in dogs might lead to findings for potential human treatments.

Experts at UC Davis have arranged some three-dozen clinical trials in dogs and because canines have a similar immune system to humans, it has made it possible for scientists, vets and physicians to build “a pipeline for cancer research,” says radiation oncology professor Arta Monjazeb.

“We can take our most exciting findings from basic research in mice and through the veterinary school translate them into clinical trials in pet dogs. That allows us to test therapies and weed out those that are not likely to be of benefit to our human patients and for the veterinarians, it gives them access to cutting-edge therapies that otherwise would not be available,” Monjazeb says.

“Most of what we practice in veterinary oncology comes from human medicine,” adds Michael Kent, professor of surgical and radiological sciences and director of the Centre for Companion Animal Health.

“Now dogs are going to help the other way and hopefully speed development of new treatments.”

Testing a new drug in human patients requires Food and Drug Administration approval – something not required for clinical trials in dogs which only go ahead with consent from owners and other safety and ethical safeguards in place.

By Nadia Moharib

Nadia Moharib is an animal lover who has adopted everything from birds to hamsters, salamanders, rabbits, fish and felines. She has written about all-things-pets for years and was a long-time editor of a pet magazine in a daily newspaper which featured a Q & A column, Ask Whit, penned by her pooch (ghost written, of course.) The serial dog owner lives in Calgary, Alberta and most days can be found at a dog park picking up after her rescue pooch, Scoots.

Veterinarians Flock to Calgary for Canada’s Only National Multi-Species Convention

Over 500 veterinary professionals are convening in Calgary, Alberta, to attend the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s (CVMA) annual convention. CVMA hosts Canada’s only multi-species event. Highlights of the convention this year will include anesthesia, pain management, ophthalmology, endocrine and metabolic diseases, nutrition, pharmacology, biosecurity, disease control, bovine lameness, infectious diseases, shelter medicine, clinical pathology, social media, etc. Over 40 speakers from all over the world will be presenting at the convention.

The conference started on July 16th and will continue to July 19th. It offers over 100 hours of educational material. The convention has also received approval from the American Association of Veterinary State Boards to provide continuing education credits.

2014-15 CVMA President, Dr. Jean Gauvin said, “CVMA is the national and international voice for the veterinary profession across Canada. Our annual convention has been going strong for 67 years and provides an opportunity for veterinary professionals from around the world to connect with colleagues and attend three full days of continuing education focusing on companion animals, large animals, ruminants, animal welfare and more.”

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