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GW Pharma might be about to join the likes of Genmab in the biotech blockbuster club, with its epilepsy drug predicted to achieve sales of close to $1B in 2018.
GW Pharma develops therapies for a range of diseases, including autism, epilepsy and brain cancer using its cannabinoid product platform. In a rundown of the top 10 most likely blockbuster drugs of 2018, Evaluate included GW Pharma’s lead candidate, Epidiolex, for severe early-onset, drug-resistant epilepsy. Sales are predicted to reach $960M (€814M), just shy of the $1B definition of a blockbuster but close enough considering others have predicted that sales could reach $2B (€1.7B). This confidence is reflected by the company’s recent NASDAQ offering and its stock price, which is up by over 5% this morning.
Epidiolex is a liquid formulation of pure cannabidiol that is targeted at two particularly rare and difficult-to-treat forms of epilepsy: Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The drug has already been granted Orphan Drug Designation for both indications by the FDA having dramatically reduced the number of seizures in children.
Back in August, GW Pharma’s route to the epilepsy market was beginning to open up as one of its closest competitors, Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, missed all of its endpoints in a Phase II trial. Although this initially affected GW’s stock price, the company has clearly recovered well since then.
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