Germany Moves to Soften Cannabis Insurance Law After Exilby Lobbying Allegations

Berlin is preparing amendments to a reimbursement law tied to Vertanical's Exilby amid a Der Spiegel investigation into contacts between the manufacturer and health officials.

FILE — statehouse · B.D. Gilfry / CC BY-SA 2.0

Germany's coalition government is preparing to walk back parts of a medical cannabis reimbursement law after new reporting raised questions about how it came together, according to Business of Cannabis.

Amendments Head to Committee

A set of clarification amendments tabled last week are due before the Bundestag Health Committee on Wednesday, Business of Cannabis reported. The changes would ease some of the most contested elements of the reform, including a mandatory six-month trial of a licensed finished cannabis medicine before patients could access a reimbursable extract — a requirement that, as the outlet noted, effectively channeled patients toward Vertanical's Exilby product.

How the Law Took Shape

Business of Cannabis laid out the sequence behind the dispute: Germany's drug regulator, BfArM, approved Exilby, a plant-derived extract, on May 30, 2026, for chronic lower back pain with a neuropathic component. Less than two months later, on July 10, 2026, the Bundestag passed a broader health-insurance savings package, the GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz, which took effect July 29. A late-added provision removed dried cannabis flower from statutory health insurance coverage entirely, stripping reimbursement from roughly 65,000 patients already using it, per the outlet's reporting. The same law imposed the six-month finished-medicine requirement. Exilby launched commercially in September and, according to Business of Cannabis, is the only one of Germany's four licensed cannabis products approved specifically for pain.

Lobbying Questions

Der Spiegel's investigation, cited by Business of Cannabis, alleges that Germany's Federal Ministry of Health met with representatives of Vertanical on June 21, 2024 — a meeting organized by a lobbying firm and, according to an email reviewed by the publication, tied directly to Exilby's regulatory approval application, which Vertanical had submitted on July 15, 2024. The federal health ministry has formally denied any contact with Vertanical or its parent group, Futrue, in connection with the lobbying allegations, Business of Cannabis reported.

Patient Data in Focus

Business of Cannabis cited a BfArM national survey of GKV cannabis prescriptions showing 76.4% of patients listed chronic pain as their primary condition — a figure relevant to how directly the flower-reimbursement cut and the Exilby trial requirement could affect the patient population.

A Wider Regulatory Squeeze

The insurance dispute lands alongside other moves to tighten medical cannabis access in Germany. Hanf Magazin reported that Health Minister Carsten Linnemann, citing a ministry forecast of roughly 300 tons of medical cannabis flower imports this year — a tenfold rise in three years — is pushing legislation that would end questionnaire-based telemedicine prescriptions and ban mail-order dispensing in favor of in-person pharmacy visits. Hanf Magazin noted that BfArM's own first-quarter 2026 import figure of 67.6 tons, revised up from an initial 50.5 tons, is broadly consistent with that trajectory, though the outlet cautioned that import tonnage alone does not indicate how cannabis is being used or whether it reflects abuse, pent-up medical demand, or market liberalization. Linnemann's push draws on a Deutsches Ärzteblatt International study of more than 70,000 hospital admissions showing increases in cannabis-related intoxication and psychosis diagnoses after the Cannabis Act took effect — a study whose authors, Hanf Magazin noted, caution against reading causality into the data.

Recreational Side Also Strained

Separately, Germany's recreational cannabis club framework is facing its own bottlenecks. MMJDaily reported that the federal association BCAv counted 474 approved cultivation associations out of 908 applications as of September, with 90 rejected and 131 withdrawn, and uneven approval rates across states — North Rhine-Westphalia approving 138 of 246 applications versus Baden-Württemberg's 38. BCAv coordinator Henry Wieker told the outlet that building permits and grow financing remain the biggest hurdles, a point underscored by a Hamburg Administrative Court ruling requiring separate building permits for converted grow sites.

What to Watch

The Bundestag Health Committee's Wednesday session will show how far lawmakers are willing to dilute the Exilby-linked reimbursement rules, though the scope of any changes was not detailed in available reporting. Der Spiegel's ongoing investigation, and the health ministry's denial of improper contact with Vertanical, suggest the lobbying question is unresolved and could shape how much further the coalition retreats from the July law.