Insurance reimbursements for medical cannabinoid products in Germany continued to grow in the first quarter of 2023, showing that Europe’s largest economy continues to see a gradual expansion of its cannabis industry – now one of the largest in the world.
Reimbursements reached roughly 50.9 million euros ($55.6 million) in the January-March quarter, according to the latest data from the German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband).
That marks a 6.5% increase compared to the same period last year, but it’s a small decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
Almost 99,000 prescriptions were filled in the quarter.
The dried-flower segment consisted of 21.1 million euros in sales.
Finished pharmaceutical products, a category consisting of products such as Sativex and Epidolex, recorded sales of 13.1 million euros.
For comparison, Canada’s regulated market recorded medical cannabis sales of 98 million Canadian dollars ($72 million) in the same quarter, according to Statistics Canada data.
However, Germany’s reimbursement data does not include private prescription sales, which are paid out of pocket by patients.
That means German medical cannabis sales were higher than $55.6 million, although the country doesn’t have an exact figure.
The GKV-Spitzenverband report is available here.
