TORONTO, Oct. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avicanna Inc. (“Avicanna” or the “company“) AVCN AVCNF 0NNan international commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the commercialization of evidence-based cannabinoid-based products is pleased to announce that it has filed its provisional patent application entitled “Methods for Reducing or Eliminating Incidence of Seizurs and Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.” for use of a novel cannabinoid formulation (the “Formulation Candidate”) upon completion of in vivo animal testing.

The formal application is filed at WIPO by claiming the priority date of the US provisional application filed in September 2022 using the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system.

The research comes from Avicanna’s ongoing multi-stage collaboration with leading epilepsy researcher Dr. Peter Carlen from the world-renowned Krembil Research Institute at the University Health Network (“UHN”). Preliminary electrophysiological studies of seizure-induced cortical slices taken from wild-type mice revealed that treatment with the formulation candidate elicited significant anticonvulsant effects compared to treatment with cannabidiol (“CBD”) or tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) alone. These results, obtained in an established in vitro model, suggest that the formulation candidate, in addition to anticonvulsant properties, shows strong potential for treating patients diagnosed with intractable forms of epilepsy and patients at risk of sudden unexpected death from seizures in epilepsy (” SUDEP”) exists. Studies on the mechanism of action of these cannabinoids in the formulation candidate confirmed that the cannabinoids acted as selective 5-HT1A receptor agonists in seizure-like events, similar to established 5-HT1A receptor agonists.

The formulation candidate was further tested in maximal electric shock (MES). in vivo Animal models to confirm anti-seizure effects compared to CBD alone. The research was carried out…