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(Reuters) - In October, the U.S. government issued Axim Biotechnologies Inc a patent for a cannabis-based suppository to treat irritable bowel syndrome.
Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, which recently brought to market a drug derived from marijuana for epilepsy, is now seeking patent protection for another one to treat eczema.
With marijuana now fully legal in Canada and at least partially legalized in the majority of U.S. states, companies are rushing to patent new formulations of the age-old botanical. This year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 39 patents containing the words cannabis or marijuana in their summaries, up from 29 in 2017 and 14 in 2016.
