They write
The new varieties of cannabis will be sold to the government by two producers for €2.35 per gramme instead of the current price of €5.80 per gramme. This will bring the selling price of medicinal cannabis at the pharmacy well below the price of the current recreational price in the coffee shop.
The government has increased the expected (contract) value of medical cannabis production to €140m which possibly implies that patients will buy more at the pharmacy instead of in coffee shops.
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The government has included in the current tender that the two new producers must also offer new varieties.
“The product offered must, just like now, meet strict quality requirements of the government, such as no use of chemical crop protections, no pollution and clear origin of the product,” Eric further explains.
“Incidentally, it is nowadays more and more patients and consumers who place high demands on manufacturers to be transparent about the origin of food, food and medicines, how it is produced and what it contains.”
Increase in medicinal production
The government has forecast a production volume totalling a contract value of €140m over a period of 6 years (2021-2026) and is therefore implicitly expecting a shift from recreational demand from patients to medicinal demand. This shift should be realised through combining a high quality product with a low price thanks to an efficient and professional production.
“The selling price to the government is currently €5.80 per gramme and will be reduced to €2.35 per gramme in 2021. This ensures that the drug should have a much cheaper price in the pharmacy than the recreational variant in a coffee shop,” Eric points out.
“The 50% cut in the prices should significantly push patients to stop ‘self-medicating’, thus resorting to registered practitioners who can tell which medicine varieties work best for this and that condition.”
Reimbursement by the Dutch health insurance companies the health insurance companies ended the reimbursement in 2018. Since in a large number of European countries, such as Germany, the costs are reimbursed, the reinstatement of reimbursements may become more likely, due to the substantially lower price.
Availability of new varieties in the 1st quarter of 2021 the demand for new medical varieties requires new research into patient preferences and the development of a stable medicinal production, so that the flowers meet the strict production requirements. These requirements mainly stipulate that every flower should have an equal level of THC/CBD, comparable to a factory-produced medication, so that doctor and patient always know that the content and thus the dosage are the same
