Health House International Limited’s (ASX:HHI) wholly-owned subsidiary CanPharma GmbH has continued to execute on its strategy by entering in to agreements with a number of other German statutory health insurance funds in consistent with the GWQ Service Plus AG agreement announced in December 2021.
CanPharma has now entered into an agreement with Techniker Krankenkasse (TKK), the largest German statutory health insurance fund that represents more than 10 million insured individuals.
This brings the total number of patients that are covered by statutory insurance (SHI) funds with framework agreements with CanPharma to over 35 million, which represents almost 50% of the total number of insured Germans. CanPharma is one of the few German cannabis companies eligible for the schemes due to its GMP manufacturing licence.
Under the agreements, CanPharma will be a preferred supplier to the funds for a selection of its CanPharma branded flowers and extracts. When doctors prescribe medicinal cannabis products for new patients that are insured with one of the affiliated insurance funds, the doctors are required to choose a product from a shortlist if the patients are to be reimbursed.
In Germany public Healthcare is provided through a Statutory Health Insurance (SHI), such as the TKK, that cover 90% of the population, with the remainder being covered by private health insurance companies.
CanPharma now has agreements with the following companies and funds: – GWQ Service Plus AG, a company that represents 47 German statutory health insurance funds covering approximately eight million individuals, commenced January 2022; – IKK Classic, a German SHI fund covering more than three million individuals, commenced February 2022; – Kaufmänische Krankenkasse, a German SHI fund covering 1.6 million individuals, commenced February 2022; – SPECTRUM K Service Plus AG, a company that represents 22 German public health insurance funds that cover around 10 million individuals, commenced February 2022; and – Techniker Krankenkasse, a German SHI fund that represents more than 10 million insured individuals commencing April 2022.
We continue to be encouraged by the continually positively changing perception of medicinal cannabis. Having public insurance companies endorse the medicinal cannabis as a valid treatment option keeps this progress going and we therefore are optimistic that this will lead to a higher reimbursements quota and increase in the number of patients treated with medicinal cannabis,” CanPharma CEO and Health House Executive Director, Dr Henrik Sprengel, said.
