Geoffrey Guy

Geoffrey William Guy (born 1954) is a British pharmacologist, physician, businessman and academic, who co-founded GW Pharmaceuticals and has developed treatments using compounds found in cannabis, which are the first cannabis-based medicines approved by and available on the British National Health Service (NHS).

In the 1980s and 1990s he was successful in the opiate painkiller business, and held appointments at the Laboratoires Pierre Fabre and the Napp laboratories. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, and has authored, contributed to and edited over 200 clinical studies and several books including The Medicinal Uses of Cannabis and Cannabinoids (2004).

Early life and education Geoffrey Guy was born in 1954 in Stanmore, Middlesex, the only son and the youngest of three of a hospital administrator and his wife, a trainee nurse. Until age 13, he lived in Christchurch, Dorset, before moving to Barton on Sea. During his teens, he attended St Peter's School in Bournemouth, played rugby and was a member of the Air Training Corps. From 1981 to 1983, he served as international clinical research co-ordinator at Laboratoires Pierre Fabre,

In 1998, he co-founded GW Pharmaceuticals with Brian Whittle. He obtained a licence from the UK Home Office to conduct research on compounds found in cannabis that might be useful as medicines. The first plants were grown in 1998 at a climate-controlled greenhouse in Southern England and clinical trials began the following year. His company was the first to obtain regulatory approval for a medicine based on cannabis in the UK since the 1930s. In June 2010, GW launched sativex in the UK, a fully approved cannabis-based medicine that subsequently rose interest worldwide. Licensed by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, it is a prescription-only medicine for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis. Its principal active components are the cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) in a ratio of approximately 50:50. Later, GW initiated clinical trials of a cannabidiol solution for the treatment of two rare forms of epilepsy in children; Lennox–Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. In 2018, the drug, under the brand name epidiolex, became the first cannabis-based medicine to obtain US Food and Drug Administration approval. In 2019, both sativex and epidiolex were made available to patients under the UK National Health Service.

In early 2021, it was announced that GW would be acquired by Dublin-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals for . The deal was completed in May 2021, at which time Guy resigned from the chairmanship of the company.

Writing Guy was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics,

In 2004 he was co-editor of The Medicinal Uses of Cannabis and Cannabinoids. In 2006, he co-authored a paper titled "A tale of two cannabinoids" which compared the use of CBD and THC. In 2016, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Reading and was also appointed visiting professor at the University of Westminster.

Selected publications Books

Articles (Co-authored) (Co-authored) (Co-authored) (Co-authored)