Medicinal cannabis approvals through the Special Access Scheme bounced back in February following January’s nine-month low, according to the latest data from the TGA dashboard.

The regulator issued just over 9,400 SAS-B approvals last month, up from 8,800 in January. The dashboard was updated today after an IT issue caused the automated upload to fail earlier in the reporting cycle.

Chronic pain was the most common indication for which a SAS-B approval was sought, followed by anxiety, sleep disorder, PTSD and cancer pain/symptom management.

Nearly 7,900 approvals were for Schedule 8 medicines, with S4 medicines making up the balance. Oils made up 56% of the market, with flower accounting for 38%.

Almost 5,000 approvals came from Queensland (up from 4,000 the previous month), followed by Victoria (2,270), New South Wales (1,290) and Western Australia (684).

Prior to launching Cannabiz, Martin was co-founder and CEO of Asia-Pac’s leading B2B media and marketing information brand Mumbrella, overseeing its sale to Diversified Communications in 2017. A journalist...

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