The second quarter of 2026 has brought tentative signs of stabilisation to a cannabis sector that spent much of 2025 fighting for survival.

From Curaleaf solidifying its Polish footprint to Aurora outsourcing manufacturing to Australia, established operators are increasingly shifting their focus to new growth markets and models.

The challenge, as Germany’s Synbiotic demonstrates, is whether these structural moves can translate into profitability in markets where regulatory frameworks remain uncertain and competitive dynamics continue to shift.

Curaleaf International solidifies Polish footprint

One of Poland’s leading medical cannabis operators, Fitokan, has officially rebranded as Curaleaf Centrum Medyczne, as its integration into the world’s largest cannabis network reaches completion. 

Having acquired the business in April 2025, Curaleaf International has spent the last year integrating the Polish clinic into its rapidly expanding European footprint, now spanning the UK, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Canada, including EU-GMP certified cultivation, processing facilities, and distribution operations.

Fitokan was one of Poland’s first cannabis clinics when it launched in December 2020, conducting over 40,000 consultations for more than 10,000 patients across 16 cities. 

According to the company, operations, services, and leadership remain unchanged, with the rebrand affecting only external elements such as the website and visual identity.

Curaleaf is just one of a swathe of North American operators expanding their presence across the flourishing European market.

In it’s most recent quarterly results, Curaleaf’s international division posted revenues of $172.5m for full-year 2025, up 63% on the prior year, and is now running at an annualised rate above $200m. 

Germany and the UK drive the numbers, but Poland, with 38 million people and a relatively recent opening to medical cannabis, represents the kind of emerging market where early positioning could deliver long-term returns.

Dr. Paweł Dryżałowski, who founded Fitokan and continues to lead the rebranded entity, told Polish platform BudCare that a team of nine doctors visited Curaleaf’s Portugal cultivation and production facilities to understand quality control and standardisation protocols. 

The clinic is also implementing an educational platform for physicians originally developed for the UK market, which Dryżałowski has translated into Polish.

“Currently, in Poland, it’s still difficult to obtain such information from a primary care physician, let alone a prescription, although the situation is slowly beginning to change,” Dryżałowski told BudCare. 

Dr Mikael Sodergren, Chief Medical Officer of Curaleaf International, framed the integration in terms of leveraging cross-border infrastructure: “Better tools and better-prepared doctors mean better treatment outcomes.”

The Poland rebrand, arriving just weeks after Curaleaf closed a $500m bond offering to extend its runway and fund strategic acquisitions, shows the company moving quickly to consolidate operations and reinforce its already dominant European footprint. 

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Synbiotic shows signs of stabilisation after difficult quarter

German cannabis and hemp group Synbiotic SE entered spring 2026 showing tentative signs of recovery following a cash crunch that saw the company slash revenue guidance by nearly 50% and scramble to secure emergency funding just six months earlier.

In October 2025, Synbiotic issued a severe profit warning, downgrading full-year revenue expectations from €30m to €17m and flipping from a projected €1.7m profit to a €1.5m loss. 

The company cited market oversaturation following Germany’s April 2024 cannabis reforms, with medical cannabis sales collapsing by 50% in Q2 amid high import volumes and sell-off pressure. Regulatory uncertainty around online sales and delays to industrial hemp liberalisation compounded the difficulties.

By December, Synbiotic had stabilised its financial situation through a combination of portfolio cleanup and emergency capital. 

The company discontinued financial support for loss-making Austrian subsidiary Bushdoctor, which subsequently filed for insolvency. It executed two small capital increases totalling €640k at €1.60-€1.70 per share, securing specialist cannabis fund CANSOUL as a strategic investor and long-term partner.

Daniel Stehr, founder of CANSOUL, pointed to the company’s diverse asset portfolio, spanning import licence and GMP manufacturing authorisation for medical cannabis, a stake in GOC Nexus with its cold plasma sterilisation technology, and market leadership in industrial hemp, as a key reason for its investment. 

“Synbiotic offers an attractive risk-return profile,” Stehr said, adding that the investment was ‘explicitly designed as a long-term investment to accompany the growth potential of the diversified platform.’

Now, in April, the company is pointing to three concrete developments as evidence of stabilisation. 

GOC Nexus, in which Synbiotic holds a 15.1% stake, received BfArM GMP certification in February and has commenced operations in medical cannabis import and processing. The cold plasma technology enables pharmaceutical-grade drying under EU-GMP standards, with validation ongoing for microbiological decontamination.

The second EKOCAN interim report on Germany’s Cannabis Act, published in early April, estimated total medical cannabis volume available in Germany in 2025 at nearly 200 tons, positioning Germany as Europe’s largest commercial cannabis market. The report suggests legal supply channels have gained significant traction and that medical cannabis now plays a central role in German supply.

On the industrial hemp side, the German Bundestag on 19 March referred a draft bill on hemp liberalisation to committees for deliberation. For Synbiotic, which operates across both medical cannabis and industrial hemp, clearer hemp regulations represent a critical lever for growth. The company’s subsidiary Hempro International attended BIOFACH in Nuremberg, focusing on hemp protein and plant-based proteins, with management reporting strong interest in sustainable raw materials.

Analyst Christian Sandherr at NuWays AG maintained a Buy rating in December but cut the price target from €6 to €5.50, forecasting revenue recovery to €25m by 2027 and a return to profitability in 2026. 

Aurora outsources manufacturing to Australia’s Bioxyne

Australian pharmaceutical manufacturer Breathe Life Sciences has secured a manufacturing agreement with Aurora Cannabis, one of the world’s largest medical cannabis companies. 

Under the agreement announced on 1 April, BLS, the wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed Bioxyne, will manufacture pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products for Aurora across multiple international markets. 

Initial purchase orders cover over 5,000 sublingual oil products and over 20,000 vape units, with two pastille SKUs also confirmed for delivery to Australian and UK markets.

The deal represents a reversal of typical global cannabis supply chain dynamics. Canada has traditionally dominated exports into Australia, with Australian imports jumping from 45,000 kg in 2023 to 77,000 kg in 2024, of which 80% came from Canada. 

Aurora itself holds the number two market share in Australia through its MedRelief subsidiary, acquired two years ago. Now, Aurora is contracting Australian manufacturing for products destined for Europe and potentially the UK.

For BLS, the Aurora partnership validates a rapid scale-up that has transformed the company from a UK CBD seller in 2018 to Australia’s leading contract manufacturer of medicinal cannabis. 

The company says it produces up to three million pastilles per month and holds roughly two-thirds of Australia’s pastille market, a dose form that has exploded from less than 5% of prescriptions in 2024 to over 25% by December 2025, overtaking oils to become the second most prescribed format behind flower.

CEO Sam Watson described the Aurora deal as validation of BLS’s pharmaceutical manufacturing expertise. “This partnership represents a significant milestone as we expand our manufacturing capabilities,” he said. “We are excited about the potential of our broader product portfolio across multiple international markets.”

BLS reported record Q2 FY2026 revenue of A$17.2m, up 112% year-on-year, with A$2.5m in positive operating cash flow. Full-year guidance stands at A$65-75m revenue and A$11.5-13.5m EBITDA. The company manufactures white-label products for more than 200 Australian brands alongside its own Dr Watson line.

The UK dimension of the agreement, however, raises questions. According to purchase orders disclosed by Bioxyne, pastille deliveries are confirmed for both the Australian and UK markets. 

Yet in a February interview, Watson stated that BLS had been unable to export Australian-made pastilles to the UK, citing resistance from the MHRA. “Our key point of contact in the MHRA is quite adamant that pastilles are not a dose form they want to support,” Watson said at the time.

BLS is betting on domestic UK manufacturing to change the regulatory calculus. The company secured a site in the Scottish Borders in December, backed by £848,250 in funding from the South of Scotland Enterprise Fund, targeting operations by the end of 2025 and up to 100 jobs within three years. Watson suggested that generating domestic clinical data could strengthen the case for MHRA approval.

For Aurora, the deal fits its stated focus on building ‘a resilient, high-quality supply chain across key international markets.’

Alex Miller, Aurora’s Executive Vice President for Operations and Supply Chain, said BLS brings ‘strong GMP-manufacturing capabilities that complement our scale, regulatory scrutiny and commitment to delivering high-quality medical cannabis products.’

The 12-month rolling agreement, terminable on six months’ notice, provides Aurora with manufacturing flexibility across Australia, UK, and Germany while outsourcing capital expenditure and regulatory complexity to a specialist manufacturer.