Canadian cannabis producer Tilray announced the availability of a new full-spectrum extract for Germany’s medical market, the company’s first product in that market offering a larger CBD concentration than THC.
The product has 5 milligrams of THC per millilitre and 20 milligrams of CBD per millilitre.
Tilray’s announcement didn’t disclose the size of the bottle.
A pharmacist told Marijuana Business Daily the new extract is being sold to pharmacies for 276 euros ($311).
In 2017, Tilray became the first company to start selling full-spectrum extracts in Germany, even before starting sales of its own flower.
It was followed by Canada’s Aurora Cannabis in 2019, and more recently by Vertanical, which is based in Gräfelfing, near Munich.
Currently, German pharmacies can order full-spectrum extracts from:
- Tilray, offering three products, one high in THC, one high in CBD and a third one balanced.
- Vertanical, also offering a high-THC extract, another one high in CBD and a balanced one.
- Aurora, offering only a THC-high extract.
The variety of full-spectrum products is much smaller than that of flower, with at least 30 cultivars being consistently available for pharmacists to order throughout the last month.
However, MJBizDaily‘s Medical Cannabis in Europe report estimated that sales of full-spectrum extracts represented just 4% of total sales covered by statutory health insurance in Germany in 2019, although that percentage is growing.
Recent massive imports of flower into Europe for further processing indicate that more extracts could soon become available.
The German market for isolated cannabinoids, particularly dronabinol, is much larger than the market for full-spectrum extracts. Sales of isolated cannabinoids represented almost 30% of the reimbursed market as of end of 2019.
In April 2020, Berlin-based Cantourage started offering plant-derived dronabinol imported from Israel, adding one more option to pharmacies. Previously, their only dronabinol option was one produced by Canopy Growth – both plant-derived and synthetically – in Germany.
Dronabinol also plays a big role in Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.
