What Ukrainian cannabis growers should be told by the information that a sales mechanism for German medical cannabis has been launched in Germany

No more than 20-25% of the German market will be covered by German raw materials that will be produced by subsidiaries of Canadian parent structures, which have been importing cannabis flowers with significant therapeutic potential into the country for 5 years already.

For the first time, medical hemp grown in Germany is available for purchase and sale in local pharmacies, according to the Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte, BfArM). Pharmacies can use Cansativa's electronic resource to purchase raw materials with significant therapeutic potential from one of three German manufacturers, two of which are subsidiaries of the Canadian Aurora and Tilray, and one from the German company Demecan.

These three companies were selected to cultivate legal psychoactive cannabis in Germany in 2019 after a long delay in the application process for the supply of hemp raw materials and pharmaceuticals for the largest medical hemp market in Europe.

Mörfelden-Walldorf-based Cansativa won a tender last year to become the sole distributor of all German-grown medical cannabis. The signed contract by the company is designed for the next four years. Production in Germany is expected to be 10,400 kg for all four years, but the signed contract includes a clause according to which there is an opportunity to increase volumes by 10% during the above period.

Market specialists note that despite the fact that local production will partially help German pharmacies meet demand, it can already be said that the country, in order to solve the supply problem completely, will need to import the hemp plant for a rather long period of time.

Commentary of the specialists of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"

Until recently, the entire legal supply of medical cannabis to Germany was imported mainly from Canada and the Netherlands. According to official BfArM data, in 2020 the German market imported about 9,249 kilograms of cannabis flowers with significant therapeutic potential, and the state health insurance program mainly covers the costs of reimbursing the patient for the plant-based drug. BfArM officially announces that it sells medicinal cannabis flowers to pharmacies at a price of € 4.3 per gram, while the cost of raw materials for BfArM is about € 2.3 euros.

Analysts predict that the European medical cannabis market is set to grow rapidly and could reach € 403.4 million by the end of 2021, with a 67.4% compound annual growth rate projected from 2021 to 2025 to reach indicator of € 3.2 billion.

The information that a German manufacturer of cannabis flowers with significant therapeutic properties is entering the German market should be not only interesting, but also instructive for national cannabis growers. It is necessary to start with the fact that German cannabis flower growers were prevented from entering the market by various administrative methods for several years, so their appearance became possible not in 2019, as prescribed by the regulatory framework, but in 2021. In addition, of the three companies that will cultivate the plant for the benefit of German patients, at least two are represented by subsidiaries of the same Canadian companies that import raw materials into the German market. 

It is worth paying attention to the amount of raw materials that can be supplied to the German national companies on the local market. In the event that the indicator of raw materials allowed for cultivation is divided by the entire period of its production, it turns out that German raw materials that will be produced by subsidiaries of Canadian parent structures, which have been importing hemp flowers with significant therapeutic potential into the country for 5 years already, will be cover no more than 20-25% of the German market. 

Having changed the situation on the modern hemp market of our country, there is no doubt that in Ukraine the lobbying of foreign hemp companies will not only not be repeated, but taking into account the national corruption component will take on hypertrophied forms. Those. if at the level of the regulatory and legal framework that is being prepared for adoption, at least, national cannabis growers and foreign companies that impose on us the need to import into the country's territory of final pharmaceutical preparations, and, at best, foreign-made raw materials at inflated prices, are not put on an equal footing for national consumers / patients are practically guaranteed a situation that has already been created in Germany. 

Pharmacological preparations based on the therapeutic properties of cannabis, appearing on the shelves of our pharmacies, will not be available at a price to an ordinary citizen of Ukraine (the cost of a monthly course starts at $ 500), therefore the second stage of the play unfolding before our eyes will be imposed, when the same pharmacological companies will demand from governments to bear the cost of purchasing drugs by patients. In the case of flowers imported from Canada and the Netherlands, the situation will be similar to what has already been observed in Germany - at the initial stage, foreign importers will do everything possible to prevent the national producer from being released to the market, and when this happens, Ukrainians will be surprised to learn. that the parent structures of national companies that legally grow medical cannabis on the territory of Ukraine are located in Canada, Holland or some other country friendly to us.

As a natural alternative, the specialized association of national cannabis growers proposes the possibility of regulating the cultivation by citizens of Ukraine on their backyard plots of technical hemp of a therapeutic orientation, as well as creating conditions under which the leaves and inflorescences of a plant with therapeutic properties and already massively grown on the territory of our country can be used in as raw materials for the production of food, cosmetics, animal feed, various kinds of additives (food, feed, dietary, biologically active).