The ANSM has selected the company responsible for supplying and delivering the vaporizers to patients included in the experimentation of therapeutic cannabis and who will be prescribed flowers. It will therefore be the German company Storz & Bickel, acquired in 2018 by Canopy Growth, with the Mighty vaporizer, one of the best vaporizers on the market.
The choice of the vaporizer was one of the prerequisites for the prescription of cannabis flowers to French patients, the smoke route not having been retained for the experiment. The medical flowers will be supplied by Ethypharm, operator of the supplier Aurora Cannabis, with no information on the different lots at this time. The first delivery is nevertheless announced for this week.
According to our information, and unlike the products provided free of charge to patients by the various companies selected, Storz & Bickel vaporizers will be purchased by dispensing pharmacies and pharmacies for internal use (PUI), after inclusion of the patient in the experiment and under reserves of a first prescription of “flowering tops”.
The call for tenders required that:
- The vaporizer does not have a pre-filling system (cartridge)
- The outer walls in contact with the user do not heat up
- The heating temperature does not exceed 215 ° C and a temperature pre-adjustment system exists
- The vaporizer is portable
- Automatic switch-off of the vaporizer is possible
- A filling chamber capacity of at least 100 mg of dried flowers
- A convection heating system
- “A herb mill or grinder” is included
In addition, the vaporizer should “not allow the vaporization of cannabis oils or resins (prohibition to provide the accessory allowing it)”.
Storz & Bickel will have to ensure throughout the duration of the experiment the supply of medical cannabis vaporizers, their delivery and the after-sales service in the event of malfunction of a device delivered during the experiment.
