Bird & Bird advised Materia on its acquisition of German licensed medicinal cannabis distributor Cannaktiv

Cannaktiv is a licensed importer and distributor of medicinal cannabis products in Germany, based in Hamburg. Bird & Bird advised Materia on the whole acquisition process including the due diligence, all regulatory and license related matters as well as the framework for market access of medicinal cannabis products and related communications.

Materia is a medicinal cannabis and wellness company primarily in the European market. It is the company's vision to be a provider of global access to medicinal cannabis. Materia mainly focusses on the extraction of cannabis to ensure that patients have access to pure, tested and highly efficient extract medicines, on the import of low-cost biomass from its international partners and having EU GMP facilities throughout Europe. These will provide it with an early mover advantage to access the European market. In order to achieve this purpose, Materia is developing a robust manufacturing and distribution ecosystem to grow the legal cannabis market across the European continent.

Cannaktiv, based in Hamburg, fits perfectly with Materia’s strategy as it is active in the business of import, trade and distribution of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Cannaktiv holds all requisite licenses to import and distribute medical cannabis products to wholesalers and pharmacies throughout Germany. The acquisition of Cannaktiv therefore will expand Materia’s distribution capabilities into Europe’s largest medical cannabis market.

Materia will operate Cannaktiv as Materia Deutschland GmbH, engaging prescribers of medical cannabis and selling to pharmacies and wholesalers.

Materia Ventures was advised by the following Bird & Bird team: partners Dr. Kai Kerger (Corporate/M&A) and Dr. Niels Lutzhöft (Commercial/Regulatory) and associate Johanna Schindler (Corporate/M&A), as well as partners Dr. Barbara Geck (Employment) and Mascha Grundmann (IP), associates Dr. Christoph Hendel, Dr. Simon Hembt (both Commercial/Regulatory), Franziska Fiedler (Employment), Julia Präger (IP), Johannes Wirtz, LL.M. and Timo Förster (both Finance), all Frankfurt.