What happened in this Health story?

After Bedrocan declared bankruptcy, Target Healthcare said it would secure a six-month Bedrolite stockpile for British families, exposing how the UK’s expanding private cannabis market still leaves epilepsy patients without dependable NHS access.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**Bedrocan**, the Dutch company that produces Bedrolite, declared bankruptcy; the article reports a high chance that the medicine will stop being available through the UK private market in the near future.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**Target Healthcare** told families it would secure a six-month stockpile of Bedrolite, offering temporary relief after an earlier fear that the medicine would stop being sold in Britain before Christmas.

Bedrocan Bankruptcy Puts Bedrolite Supply at Risk — SkimNews

By The Guardian Science · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-11-01

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Bedrocan, the Dutch company that produces Bedrolite, declared bankruptcy; the article reports a high chance that the medicine will stop being available through the UK private market in the near future.
Target Healthcare told families it would secure a six-month stockpile of Bedrolite, offering temporary relief after an earlier fear that the medicine would stop being sold in Britain before Christmas.
NHS issued fewer than five prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis-based products such as Bedrolite across the entire health service by 2025, leaving most patients to pay privately at up to £4,000 a month.
Louis Petit returned to Britain in 2022 after Rotterdam doctors helped him use Bedrolite with anti-epileptic treatment to slow and eventually stop his seizures, but he never obtained an NHS prescription and continues to rely on private access.
NHS England did not approve Louis Petit’s neurologist funding request last year; his mother said approval would have guaranteed Bedrolite, with Dutch stock available through 2028, but that stock is inaccessible without an NHS prescription.
Sajid Javid, then home secretary, legalised medicinal cannabis in 2018 and told Parliament that patients’ long fight was ending, yet doctors’ requests for public funding have rarely been granted since.
Private cannabis companies expanded through remote online prescriptions, 48-hour delivery and targeted social ads, but the larger market for anxiety, sleep and chronic-pain products left little commercial incentive to fund costly randomised trials for medicines for rare conditions.

Why it matters: Private cannabis suppliers gained a booming customer base, but epilepsy patients dependent on Bedrolite bear the sharper cost: with fewer than five NHS prescriptions by 2025 and monthly private costs up to £4,000, a six-month stockpile postpones disruption without resolving NHS access.