Khiron calls for wider NHS reimbursement of cannabis-based medicines following recent success

Khiron Life Sciences is calling for GP prescribing and the wider NHS reimbursement of the costs of cannabis-based medicinal products so the UK may follow in Germany’s footsteps.

Khiron Life Sciences’ study Flower Power: Controlled Inhalation of THC-Predominant Cannabis Flos Improves Health-Related Quality of Life and Symptoms of Chronic Pain and Anxiety in Eligible UK Patients has been selected as Editor’s Choice by the MDPI journal Biomedicines (IF:4.575).

The article was among the 46 publications selected from over 3,000 submissions based on recommendations by the scientific editors of Biomedicines from around the world.

The paper reports on the clinical outcomes associated with the inhalation of THC-predominant medical cannabis flos for therapeutic purposes in a legal and medically supervised setting.

Participants were patients registered in Project Twenty21 (T21), the first UK multi-centre registry seeking to develop a body of real-world evidence to inform on the effectiveness and safety of medical cannabis. 

Khiron Europe is confident that its continued efforts in collecting evidence will allow the UK to follow in the footsteps of Germany’s thriving medical cannabis market.

Their determination has been renewed as it was just announced that the German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) confirmed that cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs), both extracts and flower, represent a reimbursable treatment option with no additional prescription requirements.

This decision is very much welcomed by Khiron Life Sciences and is reminiscent in its scope of the recent regulation in Colombia, according to which the costs of medical cannabis therapies are now mandatorily covered by health insurance.

It comes after five years of collecting data from German patients to prove the efficacy of vaporising cannabis flos to alleviate several symptoms associated to chronic pathological conditions such as chronic pain and generalised anxiety.

A conclusion that echoes that of Khiron Life Sciences global scientific director and corresponding author of the showcased paper, Dr Guillermo Moreno-Sanz.

With Project Twenty21’s (T21) fourth year of data collection underway, the UK medical cannabis landscape could follow a similar pathway to making treatment more accessible for patients.

Khiron has long been active in the campaign for NHS reimbursement of medical cannabis.

In January, Khiron owned clinic, Zerenia™, successfully obtained NHS reimbursement for a patient.

Dr Guillermo Moreno-Sanz is optimistic that the company’s continued efforts could make this the norm for UK patients and not just a rare case.

“UK patients that resource to CBMPs are usually refractory to treatment, since in order to be eligible they need to fail other first-line treatment options, which means they already represent a burden to the NHS, both in terms of failed interventions and mobilisation of resources,” he commented.

“At Khiron, we believe that allowing GPs to initiate the prescribing process similarly to what happens in Germany and covering the cost of CBMPs would make treatment more accessible for UK patients and allow the NHS to reduce waiting times and costs on the management of this difficult-to-treat population.”