Lukas Schildt of Four 20 Pharma anticipates “a bright future” for cannabis, “the biggest market in the world”

The stand of Four 20 Pharma was, perhaps, one of the most amusing booths at ICBC in Berlin, the International Cannabis Business Conference, which took place last July, in Germany. The staff's T-shirts, in a clear allusion to the 4:20 culture and the famous hip-hop band of the 80s, RUN DMC, left no room for doubt: despite being one of the main pharmaceutical cannabis companies in Germany, Four 20 Pharma has its eyes on the full potential of the plant, awaiting the future legalization of its personal or 'recreational' use. Confirming this, the recent acquisition of 55% of its capital by Curaleaf, in a strategic operation to position itself in the European adult use market.

Curaleaf estimates that the German market could be worth nearly €2024 billion by the end of XNUMX, after legalization of adult use. According to Press release, Curaleaf's strategic partnership with Four 20 Pharma allows it to "acquire full control of Four 20 Pharma within two years after the start of adult use in Germany". The agreement is worth 19,7 million euros, according to the to MJBizDaily. Four 20 has more than 10% of the existing medical cannabis market in Germany, Curaleaf said.

We spoke with Lukas Schildt, Four 20 Pharma's Communications Manager, at ICBC Berlin, before the announcement of the acquisition of the majority of its capital by Curaleaf and we got to know a little more about Four 20 Pharma and its operations in Germany.

For those who don't know, who are Four 20 Pharma?
We are a company based in Paderborn, Germany, founded in 2018, and since then we have started importing medicinal flowers and selling them in German pharmacies. We have now successfully established a range for over three and a half years on consistent delivery and this is something we are very proud of.

Are you just importing these flowers or are you also producing in Germany?
At the moment we are importing from Canada, because growing in Germany is a big challenge. It takes a lot of money to meet all the government requirements and we decided it's best to just import. We are currently expanding our network and we are proud to say that, at the beginning of November, we will also be importing from another country.

Will it be from Portugal?
No, it won't be Portugal, not really.

You talked about the consistent delivery of a specific variety, do you only import this genetics because it is specific for some pathology?
In fact, we are importing two varieties, just two genetics. One is GG4 – Gorilla Glue, we were the first company to bring it to the German medical market. And also the Sour Apple, which is kind of an evolution of that.

And are they indicated for the treatment of any pathology?
It is especially good for patients who are treating pain, for example, and all kinds of rheumatic diseases and chronic pain, for example.

Are they THC-rich genetics or do they also have CBD? What is the ratio?
We always have less than 1% CBD and THC can range from 17% to 25%.

Does Four 20 Pharma also extract or just import and resell the flowers?
We are importing in bulk and then all material is analyzed at our facility in Paderborn, Germany, undergoing a quality check. Then we do the trimming and we take out all these things that nobody wants to have as a patient. Everything is packaged, labeled as our product and shipped to pharmacies.

How do you see the German situation now, with recreational legalization under debate? I noticed that your T-Shirts say RUN 420, which is not only an allusion to RUN DMC, but also to the 'recreational' cannabis culture. How do you see the future of cannabis in Germany?
Ah, first of all, it will be a bright future. I don't think I need to say that it's going to be the biggest market in the world and so I would say there's kind of a sense of an upcoming gold rush or, in this case, a green rush, in Germany. Everyone is getting ready, the entire medical market wants to participate in the new recreational market, but with these new possibilities there is also one thing that needs to be taken care of: and that is fulfilling its role as a pharmaceutical company. Just because there's a legal market, you can't just close your medical business. I mean, there are patients who really trust their medicine. So it will be interesting because I think the German medical market will change in some way if there is a recreational market as well, but nevertheless the medical market will evolve and it will certainly move away from the topic of flowers and go more into sublinguals and all these extracts of things , because these are products that are much more medicinal than what you could achieve with a flower, obviously. But however, if there is a recreational market, I don't know, somehow maybe 30% or more of the actual patients will switch to the recreational market or something like that… I don't know. It's just my opinion, so it's hard to say where we're going. I would not say that the medical market will decrease, I think it will grow. If cannabis becomes part of a normal, regular society and people talk about it and especially older generations start using it because they see “Oh, it's a regulated product, now,” then society will change. I think there is a great possibility that the medical market will also grow.

Do you have any idea how many patients benefit from your products?
That's a good question, actually.

And do you know the answer? 
(laughs) No, actually I don't know the answer, because somehow it's not easy to say: “Okay, we have X amount of customers”, also because our customers are pharmacies, and what happens next we can only speculate. I mean, we could guess, “Okay, he's asking for, like, 100 grams a month, 200 grams a month or so, but of course that gets into data privacy.

But do you have any idea how much you are supplying to pharmacies? Can you share some numbers?
No, not really. Sorry.

No problem. And about your presence here at ICBC, why did you decide to be here at this event?
Why are we here? Obviously to get the whole process of establishing a cannabis market in Germany, to support it, be part of it and also actively participate. We are well connected, we have good partners and we try to play a role in this market. We are the gold standard and therefore we want to meet the best. That's why we're here.