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Pioneering Progress: How Italy’s Medical Cannabis Market is Evolving

Aug. 05, 2025 by SOMAÍ Pharmaceuticals

Italy has long been one of the oldest European cannabis markets, which brought access to medical patients since 2015. Although this decree probably needs to evolve after almost a decade, Italy has a robust framework that distributes 1.5 tons of flower and 27 kilograms of extract products. Even though extracts have been fairly new to the market (since 2022), the regulatory bodies seem to prefer a more medical pharmaceutical feel and are less enthusiastic about flowers.

Italian Medical Cannabis Market Conditions

Traditionally, the Ministry of Health only awarded the Italian army the license to sell cannabis flower. 2023 Italian Health Ministry reports indicate that although the military grows approximately 0.3 tons, demand has far outpaced the initial growth targets; 0.2 tons have been imported by tender, and 1 ton comprises Bedrocan flower. 

Extracts have been produced mostly at a compound pharmacy level whereby the pharmacist takes, for example, Bedrocan flower and then does all the processes to turn it into an extract. One reason is that more steps allow the pharmacist to charge patients more; the other is that only recently have easy-to-dispense magistral products started to be approved.  Additionally, Italy is a very difficult market to get into because of the military import licenses awarded to distribute cannabis, which is still broadly classified as a narcotic. Another complexity is that medical providers must issue prescriptions in paper form, and electronic prescriptions have yet to be approved. 

However, Italians are very comfortable with cannabis. If the 2015 decree becomes more modernized, the 59-million-person country could easily convert illicit market usage to legal higher-quality use, and this could create conditions that resemble the increase in modern-day Germany’s cannabis industry size.

Somaí Pharmaceuticals Brings Global Expertise to Italy

Somaí Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to bringing a selection of its premier extracts to the Italian magistral market and will add more products as time progresses. Somaí’s three-step extraction process first extracts terpenes, then achieves 92% extraction efficiency of major and minor cannabinoids with only full-bud, single-flower strains before purifying nonessential pant materials, chlorophyll, fats and lipids. This extraction process produces the most advanced oil in the global cannabis market. 

Like in German magistral markets, Somaí cannot display the full weight and breadth of its extract portfolio in Italy due to finished dosage forms pending approval, but it still is the biggest offering compared to others. Somaí Pharmaceuticals is experienced with limiting market conditions and knows how to bring more extracts in magistral formats, such as via their Mint and Senses lines, and novel formats like sprays that are already in magistral markets like Germany. 

As time continues, Somaí Pharmaceuticals plans to push the boundaries with clinical trials in Italy and is dedicated to bringing world-class product knowledge for patients as they unlock formats that currently don’t exist in Italy. The first lines of essentials already represent a differentiated product that doesn’t just taste better to improve patient compliance but demonstrates that the debuting Somaí magistral products also have more terpenes and minor cannabinoids than those currently in the market.

Materia Medica Delivers Italian Patient Access Solutions

Founded in 2018 in Siena, Tuscany, Materia Medica Processing is located in Toscana Life Sciences’ technological park. Over the years, Materia Medica’s team has built a technologically and regulatory state-of-the-art facility, laying the groundwork for us to be a key player in the medical cannabis market in Italy. Materia Medica is ready to offer a range of products and services related to cannabis and its preparation to facilitate patient access to this therapy. Thanks to an extensive network and a commercial strategy based on training, we work to expand this market by supporting doctors and pharmacists in the use of cannabis-based therapies.

Innovation Meets Expertise with Somaí and Materia Medica Partnership

Somaí Pharmaceuticals’ partnership with Materia Medica is a fascinating marriage in contemporary Italian medical cannabis. Both companies are dedicated to providing top-notch cannabis products and educating Italian doctors on cannabis usage. A concentration on high-quality products ties them together. Because of Materia Medica’s Italian know-how, they were able to navigate the complexities of registering Somaí extracts. Materia Medica’s expertise in navigating the Italian cannabis market created a perfect nexus opportunity for Somaí’s superior extracts and extensive selection of magistral format products. Somaí and Materia Medica’s partnership anticipates a future where the patient experience securing Italian medical cannabis is easier and science-led.