Business of Cannabis reports
Denmark’s six-year medical cannabis pilot scheme could soon be expanded into a fully legalised market, following a surprise announcement from the government last week.
The Danish pilot scheme has been running since 2018, and has continued to expand in both scope and patient numbers over the past six years, with four different access schemes now operating.
Following the publication of a comprehensive analysis of these programmes, Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde last week met with the parties behind the trial scheme to discuss plans to ‘make the scheme permanent’.
Danish medical cannabis oil producer Stenocare tells Business of Cannabis that while the structure of the new framework is not yet clear, it’s likely to see a significant expansion in the market.
“It is going to grow the market. Medicinal products are primarily prescribed by specialists, while the pilot programme allows medical cannabis to be prescribed by GPs, so their’s a larger pool of prescribers out there… I think we’ll see an increase in treatment,” its CEO Thomas Skovlund Schnegelsberg said.
What happened?
Last week, Ms Løhde announced for the first time that the government planned to extend the pilot scheme permanently.
In a press release, the Minister said that 1800 patients had accessed the various schemes over the last three years, collectively redeeming around 20,000 prescriptions.
Read the full report
The government will make the medical cannabis prescription system permanent.
19-11-2024
When Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde meets with the parties to the agreement behind the medical cannabis trial scheme today, the government is preparing to make the scheme permanent. This is based on a new evaluation that shows, among other things, that the number of prescriptions redeemed has increased significantly and is now at its highest level since 2018.
20,000. That’s how many prescriptions for medical cannabis have been filled by patients as part of a pilot program over the past three years.
The scheme was introduced in 2018 to give selected patient groups, such as patients with multiple sclerosis or cancer, a legal opportunity to be prescribed medical cannabis as part of their treatment.
And a new evaluation shows that the consumption of medical cannabis has been steadily increasing. Especially in recent years, when approximately 1,800 patients have been prescribed various forms of cannabis-based medicine.
We can see that many patients who are prescribed medical cannabis by their doctor seem to benefit from the treatment. This applies, for example, to cancer patients who may suffer from severe nausea after chemotherapy treatment, or people with multiple sclerosis who may have severe pain, says Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde and continues:
If the government has its way, patients should continue to have a legal opportunity to use medical cannabis, and that is why we are planning to make the scheme permanent. But now we have to see how the parties to the agreement stand.
On behalf of the government, Sophie Løhde has invited the agreement parties – SF, Liberal Alliance, Unity List, Danish People’s Party and Alternative – to negotiations on the trial scheme for medical cannabis today, November 19.
