Israel's medical cannabis export industry is beginning to take shape. Leading Israeli medical cannabis company Panaxia received approvals to export their products to Germany and France earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Panaxia, Israel's largest manufacturer of medical cannabis products in Israel, announced that they had become the first company in the country to receive a commercial medical cannabis export license to Germany from the Health Ministry.
Before the end of 2020, Panaxia will begin selling a series of premium oil-based medical cannabis products in Germany under the Naxiva-Panaxol brand, which it shares with European pharma giant Neuraxpharm.
Only last July, Israel overtook Germany as the largest importer of medical cannabis flower in the world, a testament to former Health Minister Yaakov Litzman's widely criticized reform of the medical cannabis industry.
Last month, the trend finally began to change, when Panaxia became the first company in Israel to receive commercial medical cannabis export permits to Australia and Portugal.
However, the market potential in Germany - around 70 thousand medical cannabis patients, coupled with a significantly higher monthly price than in Israel - signals that this announcement could be a much larger turning point for Panaxia and the Israeli medical cannabis industry as a whole.
On Tuesday, Panaxia and Neuraxpharm also received Health Ministry approval to export samples of medical cannabis tablets and oils to France, to apply for participation in a pilot program initiated by the French government to regulate the medical cannabis industry in the country.
The pilot is expected to begin in the coming months and continue for about two years, during which 5-6 companies will select medical cannabis products for 3,000 patients that will meet the criteria the French government will set, free of charge.
Dr. Dadi Segal, Founder and CEO of Panaxia Israel said on Wednesday that "This is a big day for Panaxia; one for which we have been preparing for a long time. Obtaining an export permit to Germany is the most important milestone for the company to date and functions as a turning point in its activity."