Source: https://businesscann.com/
INTERNATIONAL medical cannabis company Khiron has seen its share price skyrocket over 60% following a crucial resolution that was passed by the Colombian Ministry of Health.
Resolution 2808 was signed on December 30, 2022, meaning that from January 1, 2023, every insurance provider in Colombia is mandated to cover the costs of medical cannabis prescriptions for patients.
This is great news for Khiron’s wholly owned Colombian medical cannabis clinic network Zerenia, which reportedly has a patient base of more than 25,000, 90% of whose prescriptions will now be covered by insurance.
The resolution is also understood to have expanded the number of medical conditions for which medical cannabis can be prescribed and covered by insurance, to include chronic and neuropathic pain, oncology pain, sleep disorders, epilepsy and fibromyalgia, understood to be the ‘primary conditions treated with Khiron products’.
Alongside this, Khiron has also signed a contract with Colombia’s largest public insurance company Capital Salud EPS, which is owned by the city of Bogota and insures more than 1.2m people.
Under the new contract, Khiron will provide ‘integrative health services and pharmacotherapeutic treatment with medical cannabis’ to its patient population, 280,000 of which suffer from conditions expected to be treatable via Khiron’s products.
lvaro Torres, CEO of Khiron said: “Today is a great day for patients in Colombia and Khiron. We welcome the decision from the new Colombian government to categorically mandate insurance coverage for our medical cannabis products.
“With this decision, Khiron will immediately tackle the backlog of covered medical cannabis products to our patients. In parallel, we have also secured a first-of-its-kind contractual relationship with one of Colombia´s largest government-owned insurance companies for medical cannabis specific healthcare services and dispensation. These two achievements will allow us to revert to predictable recurring revenues, shorter collection periods and improved cashflow.”
