Health & BiotechCannabis

Picture: Getty Images

Weed Week: Australian medical cannabis prescriptions are soaring

Health & Biotech

9 hours ago|Derek Rose

SHARE

• 
• 
• 
• 

The number of medical cannabis prescriptions issued under Australia’s special access scheme just keeps on growing.

There were a record 9,959 SAS Category B marijuana prescriptions issued in March, two and a half times the number from a year ago, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration disclosed this week.

February’s 8,057 approvals were the previous record. There had been an average of 5,000 prescriptions issued in the previous 12 months.

Source: TGA

Since the medical marijuana access scheme was implemented in 2016 there have now been over 100,000 prescriptions issued to an unknown number of patients. (The TGA says it receives de-identified applications and can’t match them to individual patients.)

These figures don’t even include prescriptions written by “authorised prescribers” who often prescribe a high volume of cannabis and don’t have to seek TGA approval for each individual script.

As of the end of February, there were 215 “authorised prescribers”, up from 179 at the start of the year and just 29 in December 2019.

Under the TGA’s rules patients can access marijuana to treat cancer and non-cancer pain; anorexia and wasting associated with chronic illness; chemotherapy-induced nauseua; and other conditions.

Elsewhere this week, in North America, a legalisation bill advanced in the US state of Connecticut as well as in Mexico.

Meanwhile, of the 36 companies in the ASX cannabis sector, 15 gained ground over the past week and 11 lost it.

The biggest gainer wasEve Investments, up 16.7 per cent to 0.7c on no news.

MGC Pharmaceuticals(ASX:MXC)has been the best performer year-to-date, up 180 per cent to 7c.

EVE	EVE Investments	0.7	16.7	-0.2	-40.0	$23,058,851
MXC	Mgc Pharmaceuticals	7	12.9	4.5	191.7	$155,003,662
BDA	Bod Australia	52.5	11.7	3.5	34.2	$52,382,840
MDC	Medlab Clinical	26.5	10.4	2.5	36.8	$82,013,915
EPN	Epsilon Healthcare	21.5	7.5	-2	-8.5	$39,995,959
DTZ	Dotz Nano	36.5	7.4	12.5	23.7	$139,261,480
AGH	Althea Group	51	5.2	7.5	8.5	$131,186,770
IHL	Incannex Healthcare	21.5	4.9	6.5	144.2	$227,575,256
WOA	Wide Open Agricultur	72.5	4.3	-16.5	-27.6	$65,806,600
ECS	ECS Botanics Holding	5.1	4.1	1.2	117.4	$29,507,665
LGP	Little Green Pharma	72.5	3.6	16	151.7	$95,932,737
EXL	Elixinol Global	18.5	2.8	1	19.4	$58,216,430
CPH	Creso Pharma	20.5	2.5	2.5	528.8	$214,893,089
CAN	Cann Group	55	1.9	-4	32.5	$152,814,450
ZLD	Zelira Therapeutics	6.1	1.7	-3.1	-12.9	$72,609,701
CGB	Cann Global	0.8	0.0	0.1	100.0	$41,114,042
CAU	Cronos Australia	12	0.0	-1	50.0	$6,807,500
EN1	Engage:Bdr	0.6	0.0	0	9.1	$14,691,429
ESE	Esense-Lab	1.8	0.0	0	0.0	$9,180,684
NTI	Neurotech Intl	7.6	0.0	3.1	442.9	$47,934,074
RNO	Rhinomed	12.5	0.0	-3.5	-26.5	$30,457,096
ROO	Roots Sustainable	1.9	0.0	-0.2	-20.8	$10,255,895
SCU	Stemcell United	2.2	0.0	0.3	100.0	$18,487,054
SUD	Suda Pharmaceuticals	4.6	0.0	0.6	12.5	$16,540,208
YPB	YPB Group	0.35	0.0	0.15	-12.5	$14,975,462
EOF	Ecofibre	119	-0.8	-71.5	-50.4	$400,456,436
PAL	Palla Pharma	48.5	-2.0	-28.5	-30.1	$80,147,016
AC8	Auscann Grp Hlgs	13.5	-3.6	-6	-6.7	$61,676,595
LV1	Live Verdure	25	-3.8	6		$10,607,222
MMJ	MMJ Group Hlds	11	-4.3	-1.5	27.8	$25,294,938
APH	AP Hemp	41	-4.7	7	141.2	$32,049,307
BOT	Botanix Pharma	9.3	-5.1	-3.2	-6.0	$90,502,213
MRG	Murray River Grp	24.5	-7.5	-30.5	-57.4	$11,028,786
LSH	Lifespot Health	10.5	-8.7	2.8	112.1	$15,667,427
RGI	Roto-Gro Intl	4.9	-9.3	-1.4	8.9	$12,571,092
IDT	IDT Australia	36.5	-18.0	18	128.1	$100,900,659

• Subscribe to ourdaily newsletter
• Join our small capFacebook group
• Follow us onFacebookorTwitter

READ MORECANNABIS

SHARE

• 
• 
• 
• 

SUBSCRIBE

Get the latest * news delivered free to your inbox.

• Name*
  
  
• Email*
  
  
• • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
• 
  

It's free. Unsubscribe whenever you want.

Read ourprivacy policy

Actually another apology, reading it more throughly I think YTD it is
fourth.
Pretty good anyway. Joannie