Autism a New Target for Medical Cannabis Research

The Board of Zelda Therapeutics has announced that its previously announced autism project, to be conducted at the USA-based Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.

 This is the equivalent to Human Research Ethics Approval in Australia and essentially allows the planned study to commence within the parameters of the approved trial protocols. 

This research will seek to better understand the efficacy of treatment in existing patients and will work closely with patient advocacy groups and licensed growers. 

This study will utilise CHOP’s extensive research infrastructure and is designed to capture a number of key efficacy and safety measures including bioanalytical studies. 

This initial study will lay the groundwork for a possible future clinical trial to generate high quality, robust and acceptable data to validate the extensive positive anecdotal data amongst patient populations. 

The ultimate goal is to identify cannabinoid-based compounds that may demonstrate efficacy in the treatment of paediatric autism. 

Harry Karelis, Executive Chairman said “We are very excited to be formally commencing this study in the US working alongside CHOP. The high calibre of CHOP researchers and clinicians coupled with access to extensive infrastructure positions this study to be one of the first formal, robust studies of its type conducted to date. Positive results will allow Zelda to potentially expand into a formal clinical trial to study the efficacy of standardised, high quality medicines. This study is being conducted in parallel with our pending clinical trial in Chile leveraging the observational data generated in 2017.”