Interesting report. Is it a natural response to the fact that recreational is supposedly on the way or a the report suggests it’s hard as a patient to access so therefore people are just giving up
Here’s the intro to their report
The current lack of market growth reflects an unfortunate reality in Germany that patient access to medical cannabis is still quite low. One issue is that doctors are often unwilling to prescribe cannabis. This is due to several factors, including: a lack of understanding of cannabis, a lack of public insurance reimbursement, and a lack of legal protection for doctors, where some have been sued for prescribing cannabis medicines where it was not deemed necessary.
Unapproved medications such as cannabis in Germany can only be approved on the basis of three criteria:
(1) When it is for the treatment of a serious (life-threatening or permanently detrimental to the quality of life) medical condition;
(2) Where no other therapy is available; and
(3) Based on the available data, when there is a justified prospect that treatment success (curative or palliative) can be achieved with the medicine in question.
Insurance firms are increasing the requirements placed on patients and doctors to meet the third criterion, meaning many patients need to pick up the costs themselves or seek help from private insurers.
Product Split
The split of product formats being sold in the country continues to evolve, with raw and lightly processed flowers now making up about 40% of reimbursed sales, with premade and pharmacy-made extracts accounting for 30% and pharmaceuticals such as Epidiolex accounting for a further 30%. However, the small portion of sales that are not reimbursed by public health insurers are likely dominated by flower, meaning the overall proportion of sales value is slightly higher than 40%. Approved pharmaceutical cannabinoids have been growing as a share of the market, though Epidiolex has only been included in the GKV reports since Q4 2020 at the request of Prohibition Partners.
As of December 2021, extracts to be used in vaporisers reached the market from Panaxia Labs Israel, and offer an alternative to the pharmacy-prepared oils currently in use. Oils for vaporisers make up a large segment of medical markets in North America and so can be expected to grow in importance over the coming years in Europe.
In December 2021, Canopy Growth announced the sale of C³, which had been their centre of production in Europe for dronabinol – a major product category on the continent. Canopy sold the company for a maximum of €122.6 million (based on certain milestones), significantly less than the €225.9 million they paid only two years ago. This represents a major divestment of the company away from Europe and specifically from the isolates and pharmaceutical sector on the continent.
