Chas­ing a 'mas­ter mod­u­la­tor' in the en­do­cannabi­noid sys­tem, biotech up­start promis­es to shake up neu­ropsy­chi­atric treat­ments

For two years in the ear­ly 2000s, new dis­cov­er­ies and bud­ding en­thu­si­asm around the en­doge­nous cannabi­noid sys­tem — so named be­cause it’s re­spon­si­ble for the ef­fects of cannabis in the hu­man body — cul­mi­nat­ed in a mar­ket­ed drug: Sanofi’s Acom­plia.

The first drug to specif­i­cal­ly tar­get the cannabi­noid re­cep­tor CB1, it was ul­ti­mate­ly with­drawn from the EU and Brazil due to find­ings that it may cause sui­ci­dal thoughts de­spite be­ing ef­fec­tive in treat­ing obe­si­ty. The FDA nev­er ap­proved it.

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