ANSM appoints therapeutic cannabis committee

The French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) has just appointed the members of the temporary Scientific Specialized Committee (CSST) tasked with assessing the relevance and feasibility of making therapeutic cannabis available in France.

Who are the members of the therapeutic cannabis committee?

The committee brings together specialists and experts in various medical cannabis topics. Members include

• Nicolas AUTHIER, who will act as Chairman of the committee. Psychiatrist, specialized in pharmacology and addictology. Has published several texts in his own name (here, here or here) in favor of therapeutic cannabis trials
• Élodie BÉGUÉ, Project Manager, Ligue contre le cancer (League against cancer)
• Georges BROUSSE, psychiatrist at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital
• Laure COPEL, Head of Department, Palliative Care Unit, Groupe Hospitalier Diaconesses Croix Saint-Simon
• Sophie CROZIER, neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris
• Pascal DOUEK, President of DDB Health Paris, a communications agency for a number of pharmaceutical companies. He is also a member of the Fondation pour l'Aide à la recherche sur la sclérose en plaques (ARSEP), a foundation dedicated to research into multiple sclerosis, a disease from which he suffers.
• Gilles EDAN, Head of Neurosciences at the Pontchaillou University Hospital in Rennes, France
• Béchir JARRAYA, neurosurgeon, Parkinson's specialist
• Marie JAUFFRET-ROUSTIDE, sociologist, in charge of addictions and harm reduction policies at Inserm.
• Ivan KRAKOWSKI, President of the Association Francophone pour les Soins Oncologiques de Support (AFSOS), specialist in medical oncology and pain medicine.
• Annie LE PALEC, anthropologist and AIDS researcher
• Serge PERROT, Head of the Pain Center at Cochin Hospital
• Catherine SEBIRE, Director, Association Francophone pour Vaincre les Douleurs (AFVD)

The first meeting of this committee should be held during October for initial conclusions before the end of 2018.

The creation of this committee follows the announcement by Agnès Buzyn last May the launch of an internal mission to investigate the feasibility of making medical cannabis available in France. It was then declared for the use of «therapeutic cannabis cigarettes» (dried cannabis flowers) should they prove useful.