a new drug presented as “revolutionary” to treat severe addictions

The Bordeaux biopharmaceutical company Aelis Farma published, Thursday June 8, in the English scientific journal Nature Medicine the encouraging results of a new generation of drugs to treat severe addictions to cannabis, reports France Inter Friday June 9. An approach “revolutionary” according to the authors of this study, while there are currently no approved drugs to treat these disorders.

Aelis Farma specializes in the development of treatments for brain diseases. The first results published relate to a drug of a new generation, named AEF0117. He trained “a statistically significant reduction” cannabis use and its effects on daily smokers, such as “no other drug has been successful” to do so before, according to Margaret Haney, an American researcher who supervised the first phases of study of the drug.

A treatment being evaluated in the United States

This treatment is the first to inhibit the CB1 receptor, the one responsible for the effects of cannabis addiction: it reduces, for example, the euphoric effects of this drug. It also reduces the desire to take cannabis, without hastening the consequences of withdrawal. This drug is actually based on the natural mechanism used by the brain to combat the effects of cannabis.

“These new results clearly suggest that AEF0117 could be an effective approach for patients seeking treatment for cannabis abuse disorder.”, according to Margaret Haney. According to the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends, there are 900,000 daily cannabis users in France.

This new treatment is now being evaluated in the United States, via a phase 2b study (allows the therapeutic dose of the molecule to be determined on a larger scale), on 330 participants suffering from cannabis addiction. The results should be available by mid-2024.