Germany has passed new legislation removing medicinal cannabis flower from the list of treatments covered by its statutory health insurance scheme, a system that services roughly 90% of the country's citizens.
The move is part of a wider cost-cutting package designed to shore up the finances of statutory health insurance and rein in healthcare expenditure across Europe's biggest cannabis market.
As a result of the changes, flower products will no longer qualify for reimbursement under the scheme.
Until now, patients dealing with serious conditions could have flower and extracts reimbursed in cases where standard treatment options weren't available or weren't appropriate for them.
Under the updated rules, anyone wanting reimbursement for cannabis extracts will first need to complete six months of therapy using an approved cannabis-based medicine before their treatment qualifies for coverage.
Australian producers exported over four tonnes of product to Germany during 2025, with companies including ECS Botanics, Australian Natural Therapeutics Group, Little Green Pharma and BLS Pharmaceuticals all supplying the German market.
Speaking after checking in with a German client, ECS Botanics managing director Nan-Maree Schoerie said she understood the "impact on the general market will be minimal".
"There are a select number of individual patients who will be impacted significantly but this is not a material volume of patients," she said.
A similar view was shared by Alfredo Pascual, head of strategy and corporate development at German distributor Cannamedical Pharma, who wrote on LinkedIn that the reforms were "a negative signal" but "not a drama at the market level".
According to Pascual's estimate, reimbursed flower made up just 3-4% of Germany's overall flower market by volume, and he suggested many affected patients would probably move into the self-pay segment, though he noted "nobody knows yet" exactly how many would make that switch.
Little Green Pharma and BLS Pharmaceuticals have also been contacted for comment on the changes.
