1 dead, 5 serious, in endocannaboid trial in France

One person has been left brain dead and five others are in serious condition after taking part in a clinical trial in France of an experimental painkiller made by Portuguese drug company Bial, the French health ministry has said.

Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the neurology department at the hospital in Rennes where six trial volunteers were admitted for treatment, said that, aside from the man who was clinically dead, three others were suffering a “handicap that could be irreversible”.

The medicine involved works by targeting the body’s pain-controlling endocannabinoid system, which is also responsible for the human response to cannabis.