First Cannabis Drug Wins FDA Approval Amidst $2.4 Billion Wave of Capital Investment, an Industrial Info Market Brief

British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals plc has won FDA approval for a pediatric epilepsy treatment, Epidiolex. What makes this noteworthy beyond the drug's promise in managing hard-to-treat seizures, is the fact that it is the first approved cannabis-based prescription drug. Cannabis, or marijuana, as it is more commonly known, remains illegal under federal law. That has not stopped the increasingly huge wave of approvals for both medicinal and recreational uses across the globe.