The First FDA-Approved Marijuana Drug Won’t Be Cheap

A couple months ago, we covered the FDA’s approval of the first marijuana-derived drug. At the time there was no information about how GW Pharmaceuticals would price Epidiolex, which is used to treat the most severe types of childhood epilepsy. A recent article from Business Insider noted that GW revealed the price of the drug on a call with investors last week, and it comes in at roughly $32,500 a year.

The head of GW’s commercialization efforts in the US said that the price for Epidiolex is in line with similar epilepsy drugs on the market, and that the price was mostly dictated by insurance company feedback. He also noted that the anticipated wait time to receive the prescription is about three weeks, but before any prescriptions can be written, the DEA has to reschedule the active ingredient CBD, which currently isn’t accepted for medical use.