The medical cannabis registry has found itself in a storm of “disappointed” current and potential patients after it announced a 40% increase in pricing.
Project Twenty21, which aims to aid patients in accessing to medical cannabis while simultaneously gathering valuable evidence of its efficacy, announced a change in their pricing for this year after a massively successful but tough 2021.
In their original statement, they claimed they were “proud that Project Twenty21 has brought down the exceptionally high price of private prescriptions for so many patients.”
The initial price cap of £150 for Twenty21’s Formulary product was thought to be “very competitive when compared with the illicit market.”
However, to be able to offer the same service in 2022 – the project was originally planned to end at the end of 2021 –, Project Twenty21 will ditch the capped pricing model for all medicines in the formulary. Instead, a set price per gram for flower and per millilitre for oil model, irrespective of quantity, will be introduced.
According to the announcement, it will be set at £7 per gram of flower and per millilitre of oil for all Project Twenty21 formulary products. The change will come into effect from 1st February 2022.
This equates to a 40% increase – something that has caused an uproar among current and potential patients on social media.
Canex has approached Project Twenty21 for a comment.
Mags Houston, the Head of Project Twenty21 – DrugScience, said: “Drug Science appreciates the concerns raised over the change in price strategy for Project Twenty21 and genuinely does empathise with patients.
“We also understand that this will affect some patients more than others depending on an individual’s prescription costs. This decision was made in consultation with the project’s partners.
“The price model changes means that the project can continue for the foreseeable when it was originally only planned to run until the end of 2021. We hope that the public acknowledges that making this change and running Project Twenty21 for at least another year is better than having no project at all.
“The longer-term objective is that we move closer to allowing people in the UK to access medical cannabis via the NHS, and that is what the project sets out to do and will keep driving towards.”
