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Insurance for the medical cannabis sector
From individual prescribers to the clinics, importers and manufacturers behind them. A sector where the wrong wording can be worse than no wording at all.
The problem
Standard cover often will not respond.
Prescribing cannabis based medicines in the UK sits outside the arrangements most clinicians are used to relying on, and outside the assumptions built into a lot of standard policy wordings. The result is a sector where people are frequently less protected than they believe.
- NHS indemnity does not follow a clinician into private practice, and most prescribing of cannabis based medicines happens privately.
- Most of these medicines are unlicensed, which means the prescriber carries full clinical responsibility for the decision.
- Regulators expect practitioners to hold insurance or indemnity covering the full scope of what they actually do, not a near enough approximation of it.
- Many policies still carry cannabis exclusions that are easy to miss unless you go looking for them.
- Discretionary indemnity from a defence organisation is not the same thing as a contractual insurance policy.
- When a policy ends, so does the protection, unless run off cover has been arranged.
A policy that does not mention what you do is not the same as a policy that covers it.
Before you renew
Questions worth asking.
Whether you come to us or not, these are the questions we would want answered before signing anything.
- Does the wording name cannabis based medicinal products, or does it simply fail to exclude them?
- Does it cover the prescribing of unlicensed medicines specifically?
- Is the protection contractual, or is it discretionary?
- What happens to historic work if you change insurer or stop practising?
- Does it extend to remote consultations and telemedicine?
- If you sit in the supply chain, does product liability sit properly alongside it?
Who we arrange cover for
The whole chain, not just the prescriber.
Risk moves along the supply chain. A clinic, an importer and a technology provider are exposed in very different ways, and the cover needs to reflect that.
Experience
Someone who was placing this risk before it was fashionable.
Richard has been working with clinicians in this field since 2021, including alongside sector bodies, at a time when much of the market simply would not look at it. That work involved helping shape specialist malpractice wordings that reflect the realities of prescribing unlicensed medicines rather than treating them as an awkward exception.
That experience is now the foundation of Cupican, and it sits alongside a full commercial broking offering rather than replacing it.
More about RichardPlease note
This page is general information about insurance in the medical cannabis sector. It is not advice on your own regulatory or indemnity position, and it does not replace guidance from your regulator or professional body. Speak to us about your specific circumstances before making a decision.
Tell us what you prescribe, supply or produce.
We will tell you what the market will consider, what it will exclude and what a workable programme looks like.