Celadon Pharmaceuticals PLC on said it has received approval from the UK National Health Service Research Ethics Committee to roll-out its non-cancer chronic pain clinical trial for up to 5,000 patients.

The London-based pharmaceutical company focused on the research, cultivation, manufacturing and sale of breakthrough cannabis-based medicines said the NHS committee requested a three-month feasibility study, which indicated positive outcomes for quality of life, pain and sleep as well as a reduction in opioid usage.

Prior to the study, Celadon said it had received conditional approval from the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The firm said the trial is intended to create a data set to support prescriptions of cannabis-based medicines. It said it hopes the trial will ultimately lead to the opening of the UK to market to cannabis-based medicines.

Chief Executive James Short said: ‘We are delighted that our clinical trial has received its approvals and we can now start the important work of getting our medicine to patients. Everything we do at Celadon starts with the patient, and the results from the first part of the study we have seen in terms of improvements in quality of life have been tremendous.

‘Our longstanding aim remains to open up the UK market by giving doctors confidence in prescribing and creating the most robust data set to-date in the UK for cannabis-based medicines. This is why we invested in LVL and the trial protocol in the first place, which was over two years in development.’

Celadon shares rose 6.8% to 149.49 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.

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