Insights

Denmark’s medical cannabis pilot ends on a record 22,410 prescriptions

September 30, 2026

• Insight · Denmark

Denmark’s medical cannabis pilot ended on a record 22,410 prescriptions

Denmark’s medical cannabis pilot became a permanent scheme on 1 January 2026. Its final year set a record: 22,410 prescriptions, up 64%, for 2,465 patients. Growth came from patients staying on treatment, a second supplier competing on the same cultivars, and more doctors willing to prescribe.

Arnau Valdovinos · Cannamonitor · 30 September 2026

22,410prescriptions in 2025+64% on 2024, 7.6× 2018

2,465patients in 2025+54% on 2024

9.1prescriptions per patientup from 2.4 in 2018

30%of prescriptions are oilsup from 3% in 2022

Demand rebuilt after the 2019 oil withdrawal, and oils now make up 30% of prescriptions

Pilot-scheme prescriptions by format (bars, left axis) and unique patients (line, right axis), 2018–2025

FlowerOilCapsuleFormat not publishedUnique patients (right axis)

Source: Lægemiddelstyrelsen annual reports 2018–2025 (consumption data: Sundhedsdatastyrelsen). Format split published from 2021; 2018–2020 shown as totals, with formats on sale in the strip. 2022 excludes one oil product with <5 prescriptions.

• Demand

Growth came from therapeutic continuity, not one-off trials

A record final year.

Prescriptions rose 64% in 2025 and patients 54%, to 2,465. The patient base finally passed its 2019 peak of 1,705.

Patients stay on treatment.

Each patient redeemed 9.1 prescriptions in 2025, against 2.4 in 2018. Early patients tried a product once or twice; today they refill it through the year.

Oils recovered from a three-year setback.

The July 2019 quarantine of Stenocare’s oils, after the CannTrust scandal in Canada, halved patients by 2020. Oils from a different supplier returned in 2022 and now make up 30% of prescriptions.

• Access

More affordable, and more doctors willing to prescribe

Competition on the same cultivars.

CannGros was the only flower supplier until 2021. Scanleaf then began selling the same Bedrocan cultivars, listed at €19.55/g in October 2024, and launched the first Danish-made oil. Its Bedrocan went from 1,075 prescriptions in 2024 to 7,460 in 2025.

The cheapest route per prescription.

Pilot products cost patients about DKK 890 per prescription in H1 2023, against about DKK 1,180 for compounded preparations and DKK 1,090 for authorised medicines. The subsidy covers less (about 40%, against 73–84%), but the products cost far less.

More prescribers on board.

Any doctor can prescribe under the scheme. By September 2023, 536 doctors had done so, 52% of them specialists, and in 2022 the pilot overtook compounded preparations as the main route by prescriptions.

Source: Evaluering af forsøgsordningen med medicinsk cannabis (Nov 2024), H1 2023 register data; Danish Health Data Authority figures published by Stenocare (Sep 2023); Scanleaf price list (Oct 2024). Out-of-pocket cost per prescription is sales minus regional subsidy, divided by prescriptions (Cannamonitor calculation).

• Market structure

A small market that has consolidated, for now

Stenocare’s acquisition of CannGros in November 2025 gives the listed group 55.6% of prescriptions, while Valcon Medical’s Scanleaf holds 43.4%. The deal valued the Danish flower market at about DKK 11m. Shares have moved quickly each time a new product arrived, so today’s de facto duopoly is a snapshot, not a settled structure.

Scanleaf overtook CannGros, which went from sole flower supplier to a third of the market

Prescriptions by licence holder: 2025 split (left) and share of each year, 2021–2025 (right)

CannGrosAurora NordicLittle Green PharmaStenocareScanleafBalancial

Source: Lægemiddelstyrelsen annual reports 2021–2025. Supplier is the Danish licence holder named on the product; Stenocare acquired CannGros in November 2025. Every flower product is a Bedrocan (NL) cultivar.

• Entry and exit

Other suppliers struggled to gain a foothold

Who supplied the Danish scheme, 2018–2025

Periods with product on sale in the pilot scheme, by licence holder, 2018–2025

Source: Evaluering af forsøgsordningen med medicinsk cannabis (Nov 2024), Table 1.1; Lægemiddelstyrelsen annual reports; company announcements. Balancial start is the partnership announcement (23 Sep 2024).

2020–2021

Aurora Nordic

Its Sedamen capsule reached 19% of prescriptions in 2021, then left in November that year.

2022–2023

Little Green Pharma

Billinol flower took 16% of prescriptions in 2022 and was withdrawn in April 2023.

2019–2022

Stenocare’s gap

Out of the market for three years after the 2019 quarantine, back with its own oils in June 2022.

2025–2026

DanCann Pharma

Sold CannGros to Stenocare in November 2025 and delisted from Spotlight in January 2026.

2024–

Balancial (Helius)

Still on sale, but at 1% of prescriptions after its second year in the scheme.

• Outlook

What to watch in 2026, the first permanent year

Permanence, not reform.

Bill L135 made the scheme permanent but left the 50% subsidy model untouched. In a 2021 survey of 416 MS patients, 67% cited price as the reason they had no prescription.

Prescriber guidance still pending.

The Danish Medicines Agency guidance promised in the 2024 cross-party agreement has not yet appeared. In the same survey, 41% said their doctor would not prescribe.

One cultivar house behind all flower.

Every flower product on the list is a Bedrocan cultivar. Bedrocan Nederland entered a suspension of payments on 24 September 2026; the company says its Danish operations continue as normal.

The first permanent-year data.

The agency’s 2026 report, due around September 2027, will show whether the 2025 surge carried into the permanent scheme.

Method & sources. Lægemiddelstyrelsen annual adverse-event and consumption reports, 2018–2025 editions (data from Sundhedsdatastyrelsen); Evaluering af forsøgsordningen med medicinsk cannabis (Nov 2024); company announcements (Stenocare, DanCann Pharma, Bedrocan). Pilot-scheme end-products only; compounded dronabinol/CBD and authorised medicines (Sativex, Epidyolex) are excluded. Shares and ratios are Cannamonitor calculations.