On April 24, 2026, Four 20 Pharma GmbH hosted the third Circle of Experts. At Hotel Vivendi in Paderborn and in parallel digital sessions, physicians, pharmacists, and nursing professionals came together for a day focused on medical cannabis. For the first time, the afternoon program was divided into profession-specific sessions. This step reveals much about the maturity of cannabis therapy in Germany.
📑 Inhaltsverzeichnis
Plenary: Four Keynote Presentations
Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Herdegen opened the plenary with an overview of the multimodal effects of medical cannabis and safety concerns in multimorbid patients. Prof. Dr. mult. Eckhard Nagel contextualized the topic internationally, examining which care models function in other countries and what challenges German practice has navigated so far. Dr. med. Konrad F. Cimander, with long-standing expertise in cannabis therapy, summarized challenges and opportunities for 2026.
The fourth slot featured Prof. Dr. med. Kirsten Müller-Vahl discussing ADHD and cannabis, an area that is comparatively understudied and controversial in clinical practice. Müller-Vahl is one of the few researchers systematically investigating this topic. Hanf Magazin has already covered the research landscape in a detailed article on ADHD research.
In early afternoon, Prof. Dr. Sven Gottschling presented the Corall Study on cannabinoids in palliative care. Dr. Matthias Giesel presented the current state of research, and André Ihlenfeld contributed real-world data from clinical practice—evaluations from ongoing prescribing activity rather than controlled studies.
Professional Group Sessions: 2026 Innovation
The structural innovation of the year was the division into three separate sessions in late afternoon, one for each professional group. For physicians, the focus was on specific clinical conditions: myofascial pain (Dr. Daniel Huse), fibromyalgia (Dr. Giesel), sleep disorders (Müller-Vahl), and complex pain and palliative situations (Gottschling).
The pharmacy session addressed pharmaceutical practice questions. Johannes Hoffmann discussed inhalable extracts and polypharmacy, while Dr. Christiane Neubaur covered changing supply practices and pharmacy billing—an area requiring significant regulatory adjustments since the removal of controlled substance requirements for cannabis flowers. The scope of this issue is evident from the diversity in the German medical cannabis market.
The nursing session covered pain management in residential long-term care (Sascha Saßen) and cannabinoid therapy as part of what Nicolas Enriquez calls „Aromatherapy 2.0.“ Enriquez brought his perspective as a patient, which is rarely seen in nursing sessions and added an additional dimension to the format.
A closing discussion with representatives from all three professional groups concluded the day before the program transitioned to networking dinner.
What the Event Reveals About Clinical Practice
Format conferences like the Circle of Experts are nothing new. What stands out is that cannabis therapy is now differentiated enough to justify three parallel tracks. Just a few years ago, a medical cannabis conference would have landed primarily with physicians, with pharmacy and nursing topics relegated to the margins. The fact that these professional groups now fill their own program blocks suggests a care reality in which cannabis as a therapeutic agent is no longer merely a prescribing issue, but must be considered throughout the entire treatment chain—from clinical indication by physicians through pharmacy dispensing to patients to application in nursing care.
At the same time, the format remains manufacturer-driven. Four 20 Pharma is both provider and organizer—a tension the industry knows well: whoever finances the discourse shapes it. The value of the event depends on whether the professional content is presented independently enough to be taken seriously by skeptics, or whether it becomes a marketing instrument long-term. The selection of speakers, predominantly from university hospitals and with proven research expertise, suggests the former this year.
„The Circle of Experts has grown not only in size but also in content depth. The new profession-specific sessions in particular have shown that we create genuine value for daily clinical practice,“ says Tino Haack, CEO of Four 20 Pharma GmbH.
Whether this growth makes the transition from industry event to one of Germany’s relevant healthcare conferences will become apparent at the next edition. In particular, how far the circle of independent actors reaches and whether the format can stand on its own without the industry backing of the organizer.
Source: Four 20 Pharma press release from April 27, 2026
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