JAZZ - Time Is Still The Enemy Says Mom Who Moved Mountains For Her Epileptic Daughter & Still Advocates For Millions Of CBD Users | Benzinga
If there's love that could move the Earth, it's that of a parent towards a child. And, as the Chinese proverb says, ‘To understand your parent's love, you must raise children yourself.' Today's story is about a mother who once moved mountains for her daughter and continues to do the same for other struggling parents with children who are ill.
Paige Figi is an executive director of Coalition for Access Now, a non-profit that educates the public and lawmakers about the health benefits of Cannabidiol, or CBD. Her journey into this world was born out of her journey of motherhood.
In 2020 her four-year-old daughter, Charlotte, born with a severe form of pediatric epilepsy called Dravet Syndrom, had failed all standard pharmaceutical options. She "was seizing 50 times a day, on life support, her prognosis looking worse by the day," Figi told Benzinga. "I turned to scientists studying Cannabidiol as a potential therapy for epilepsy. I searched for experts in Colorado to help create an extract under strict breeding, farming, extracting, and testing criteria…what we now call CBD."
It turned out that this non-intoxicating hemp extract, high in CBD and low in THC was extremely effective in treating Charlotte's epilepsy, allowing her to live a non-medical, pharmaceutical-free life.
Charlotte became famous worldwide after appearing in the 2013 CNN documentary hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta called "Weed."
This little girl inspired the creation of Epidiolex, the groundbreaking FDA-approved cannabinoid seizure medication. The first FDA-authorized CBD medicine Jazz Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ:JAZZ), Epidiolex was first approved for treating seizures connected to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. In 2022, Epidiolex was approved for treating seizures related to tuberous sclerosis complex.
Charlotte Figi was the catalyst, or as Gupta said she was "more than an individual, she was an entire movement."
Now, her story continues to help people around the world, thanks to her mother.
"Epilepsy parents in similar predicaments across the world heard our success story, wanted access and were faced with the predicament of lack of legal access," Figi said. ...