Medical cannabis companies in Denmark have attracted outside capital amounting to more than 1.5 billion Danish kroner (about 200 million euros) or an average of $6 million per company.
According to a new report, conducted by Copenhagen-based Iris Group for investment promotion agency Invest in Odense, and reported by MJBIZ Daily, the largest investments come from founders and employees who have invested $90 million. euros, i.e. 44% of investments.
The other sources of funding were:
- Share capital (25%)
- Seed capital and venture capital (25%)
- Loan capital (25%)
- Grants from public funds or programs (15%)
- Angel investors (10%)
- Other sources (5%)
For its report, Iris Group surveyed Denmark’s 36 medical cannabis companies in 2021, including big names like Aurora or Little Green Pharma, which employ a total of 286 full-time people.
“Most of the growth of the European medical cannabis sector will be generated by sales of extracts and isolates rather than dried flowers,” the report notes, citing various forecasts.
Dried flower cannabis accounted for less than 90% of medical cannabis sales in Europe in 2020, falling to just over 70% in 2021 and over 50% in 2022. A report by Prohibition Partners in 2021 suggested that the flower could fall to just under 45% of all sales in 2023.
The Danish government launched a four-year pilot program for medical cannabis in 2018. The program was extended in 2021.
The report, however, does not give many details about the difficulties of the program. It had peaked at 1,000 enrolled patients in the second quarter of 2019, but has failed to reach 500 patients in each of the past nine consecutive quarters.
The program has therefore seen no growth over the past 2 years, with the vast majority of medical cannabis use remaining underground.
The report says Danish medical cannabis companies expect future growth to be driven primarily by increased exports rather than opening up the domestic market.
