Althea gets set for German market expansion after executing supply agreement with Nimbus Health

Pharmaceutical company Althea Group (ASX: AGH) has added Germany to its list of active markets following the signing of a three-year supply and distribution agreement with wholesaler Nimbus Health.

Althea will now see its products sold in Australia, the UK, Canada and Germany as part of a sequential global expansion strategy.

Nimbus is a German pharmaceutical wholesaler specialising in the import and distribution of medicinal cannabis products and estimates it has an approximate 25% market share of medicinal cannabis sales in Germany.

Via the agreement, Nimbus will sell and distribute Althea’s medicinal cannabis products across Germany as of later this year.

According to Althea, the agreement covers the entirety of its product suite with all sold products to retain the company’s brand name. The two companies have also agreed to jointly establish annual sales targets, marketing and commercial strategies.

Althea will receive payment for products supplied to Nimbus, along with 50% of the net profit on sales. Furthermore, it will retain ownership of all real-world anonymised patient data collected through its Althea Concierge service.

Active market strategy

With a population of over 80 million and a favourable regulatory environment, Germany’s medicinal cannabis market is one of the largest in Europe that is expected to undergo rapid patient growth in the coming years.

Both public and private insurers have accepted the use of medicinal cannabis with approval rates exceeding 70%, according to research conducted by Arcview Market Research & BDS Analytics.

In other areas such as Australia and the UK, Althea has recently reported strong revenue figures including adding more than 600 patients in February alone.

At the end of February, Althea had 5,207 patients who were prescribed a range of medicinal cannabis products by 440 healthcare professionals – figures that are expected to continue growing as patients report positive results from being treated with medicinal cannabis.

Althea said, when executing its partnership with Nimbus in Germany, the duo will seek to emulate Althea’s existing sales strategy in Australia and the UK whereby an established local wholesaler drives local sales via a high-performance in-field sales team.

The pharma company also plans to create a localised version of its concierge education service for the German market.

Through these initiatives and with Nimbus’ local expertise, Althea believes that it is ideally positioned to become the market-leading medicinal cannabis brand in Germany, the company said.

The news helped nudge Althea up 2.5% to $0.40 per share in morning trade.