Danish medical hemp market

In the presence of national varieties of technical hemp of therapeutic relevance, it makes sense to amend existing by-laws so that the treatment of Ukrainians with national cannabis raw materials could already be carried out from 2020.

The number of patients receiving recipes offering therapeutic properties of cannabis in Denmark increased by more than 300% only during the first year of the program's functioning in the country, exceeding the forecasts and expectations of both the hemp industry specialists and Danish physicians as well as government officials. Given this kind of market dynamics, all of the above categories of people associated with the market for medical cannabis in Denmark already say that more needs to be done to lower prices, expand the range of products, and further improve access to drugs made on the basis of therapeutic properties of cannabis .

At the moment, within the framework of the above pilot project, the following cannabis products are available to Danish patients: leaves and inflorescences of legal psychoactive hemp imported by the Dutch company Bedrocan and oral Stenocare solutions imported from Canada. Currently, Dronabinol, Sativex, Marinol and Cesamet are also available in Denmark, however, they are beyond the scope of the pilot program.

It is noted that the lack of available hemp products within the pilot program has led to an increase in the legal sales of hemp for therapeutic purposes through other opportunities provided by the Danish legislation. In particular, Foreign Policy Advisor Michael Prytz claims that "sales of hemp medical products outside the pilot program have increased due to lack of affordable products within the framework of this project, as well as due to increased awareness of the therapeutic properties of cannabis in Denmark ".

According to Farzad Jahanshahi, director general of the Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer of legal herbal medicines, the number of patients who during the year 2018 treated hemp in the framework of the pilot program exceeded the original expectations. In spite of this, he would identify three areas of modern hemp farming in the country who need improvement:

• Medical hemp is still a relatively new product, therefore the awareness of its therapeutic properties remains limited;

• General practitioners are still skeptical of the effectiveness of using the therapeutic properties of hemp; therefore, appropriate training courses for medical staff should be provided;

• High prices limit access to hemp-based medicines, and reimbursement is limited to DKK 20,000 (US $ 3,000) a year.

According to Mr. Jahanshahi "With the growing knowledge of medical personnel and the practice of applying the therapeutic properties of hemp, combined with the introduction of more hemp products and lowering the prices of the market, the number of patients and the hemp market will increase significantly".

Currently, all medical hemp in Denmark is imported, but at the end of this summer, the situation will change significantly. As of mid-April 23, applicants were granted permission to grow and treat therapeutic cannabis in Denmark, and another 12 hemp entrepreneurs are currently awaiting a decision on earlier applications. In particular, the director general of the non-governmental organization Cannabis Denmark, Rikke Jakobsen, claims that the Danish Medical Agency should complete inspections and grant licenses to the relevant hemp companies of the country by the end of summer 2019. "

Comment of Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"

The four-year program for the use of therapeutic properties of cannabis in Denmark began to work from January 1, 2018. It is precisely this that allows medical practitioners to legally appoint products containing hemp, which have therapeutic properties, as medicines.

According to the Danish Medical Data Agency, in the country, the number of recipes for medical products made from hemp has grown from 227 (patients) and 411 (prescriptions) in the first quarter to 765 and 1329 respectively in the fourth quarter of 2018, while the total number of patients using this program was 2721 people who bought over 6778 recipes throughout the year.

A number of international cannabis companies use Denmark as the basis for implementing their strategies for accessing the European market for medical hemp. For example, Canada Canopy Growth plans to begin shipment of medical hemp from its Danish center for plant production by September, Aurora Cannabis plans to get the first "commodity" crop from its Danish company by the end of the first quarter and deliver its first deliveries in the next quarter of 2019.

Also, as in Germany, the Danish government structures initially provided the opportunity to use the therapeutic properties of cannabis to foreign companies, subsequently replacing their products with national raw materials. In the presence of national varieties of technical hemp of therapeutic relevance, it makes sense to amend existing by-laws so that the treatment of Ukrainians with national cannabis raw materials could already be carried out from 2020.