A new report, published by a leading market intelligence firm, found that sales of the three most lucrative pharmaceutical cannabis products could be doubled by 2025.
According to Prohibition Partners’ The Pharmaceutical Cannabis Report: 2nd Edition, while the massive potential of cannabinoids in the treatment of medical conditions (from pain and spasticity to PTSD and epileptic seizures) offers major opportunities, the current global spend on non-cannabinoid-based pain medications worldwide is still estimated at US$63-85 billion each year.
More shockingly, as the report states, no single cannabinoid drug has received widespread approval in the treatment of pain.
It is estimated that around 200 million people use cannabis, globally, each year. Insights from Prohibition Partners’ global surveys of cannabis users in 2020 and other studies indicate that around 40% of consumers have some medical component to their usage.
The market is there; the demand is also there. According to the market intelligence firm, the market size for the three most widely used cannabinoid pharmaceuticals (Epidiolex ®, Sativex ®, dronabinol) is worth just under €900 million as of 2021, with a projected growth to €1.8 billion by 2025.
Barbara Pastori, director of strategy and data at Prohibition Partners, said: “The goal of establishing oneself in the medical cannabis space is very much a moving target.
“The balance of approved and unapproved products is constantly shifting, and new innovations in the highly medicalised sector of cannabis promise to upend some of the current status quo in the industry.
“As such, Prohibition Partners offers this report along with our consulting services to anyone seeking to understand where they fit in this rapidly evolving industry. We provide industry-leading insights and strategic advice to anyone seeking to establish or develop their position in the value chain.”
Despite the prevalence of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the human body and the seeming involvement of the system in a significant number of human illnesses, there are only a handful of drugs on the market which modulate this system.
It is thought that around 250 clinical trials using compounds that target the ECS are carried out each year.
There is plenty of room for growth in these figures considering the central metabolic role played by the ECS.
