- Canada’s
first nationally legal cannabis-infused edible products began hitting
store shelves December 17, vastly broadening the market for products using
the plant’s extracts
- Lexaria
Bioscience has dedicated years of research to the development of its
proprietary DehydraTECH technology, designed to enhance the effectiveness
of orally consumed drug products such as cannabis as well as nicotine
- Testing
of Lexaria’s 2.0 version of its DehydraTECH technology shows enormous improvement
in the speed of payload delivery to the bloodstream, as well as the
potential for delivering drugs across the body’s largely impenetrable
blood-brain barrier to the central nervous system
Canada’s regulatory innovations in making cannabis products
accessible nationwide for both therapeutic and recreational purposes have led
to this year’s ‘Cannabis 2.0’ national rollout of laws for a new edible
cannabis-infused market. Cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals became legal
in October pending a 60-90-day regulatory approval process for product
applications, and that timeline resulted in the first legal edibles becoming
available December 16 (http://ibn.fm/qFZdX),
just in time for Christmas, subject to retailers’ delivery schedules.
Oral drug product innovator Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) is
well situated to take advantage of the market arising from Canada’s sweeping
legal changes, as well as the burgeoning market for infused edibles in select
states within the United States. Lexaria’s own ‘2.0’ version of its patented
DehydraTECH™ oral drug delivery technology has shown an ability in lab animal
testing to deliver 811 percent more cannabidiol (CBD) into the bloodstream than
generic industry control formulations, nearly doubling the capacity of existing
DehydraTECH technology, a news release states (http://ibn.fm/Utl7A).
The company’s 2.0 technology is specifically being developed
for effectiveness in helping to deliver its drug payload across the blood-brain
barrier, a natural biological system of blood vessels and endothelial cells
that bar most drugs from accessing the brain’s central nervous system
hierarchy. The ability to effectively deliver drugs to the brain is of keen
interest to developers of drugs designed to beneficially target the central
nervous system.
Lexaria’s research and development showed that DehydraTECH
version 2.0 was able to deliver 1,937 percent more CBD into brain tissue than
generic industry control formulations and 487 percent more than the original
DehydraTECH technology, according to the company’s news release.
Deloitte market analysts estimate that the total cannabis
market in Canada alone, where the market allows for federal scale, will produce
up to $7.17 billion in sales this year, the vast majority from approved
recreational-use products. While edibles currently make up a small portion of the
overall cannabis market, Deloitte found that six out of 10 likely cannabis
consumers will choose to use edible products, particularly when it comes to
baked goods (http://ibn.fm/gVhe7).
Deloitte researchers predict the Canadian market for edibles
and alternative cannabis products will be worth $2.7 billion a year, with
extract-based products making up nearly 60 percent of the total (http://ibn.fm/iu82y).
Lexaria also recently announced pilot lab trials in humans
that showed the recreational tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabinoid
demonstrated effectiveness in less than 10 minutes with version 2.0 – about
twice as fast as traditional DehydraTECH and four to six times faster than
generic industry formulations for oral consumption (http://ibn.fm/lWR1X).
While cannabis’ popularity has been an explosive new market
force, the DehydraTECH technology isn’t dedicated to it exclusively.
DehydraTECH has been in development as a solution to health problems associated
with smoked or vaped drug delivery over the course of the past three years,
including alternatives to tobacco’s nicotine cigarette inhalation.
DehydraTECH’s developmental goal is to provide an oral drug consumption method
that provides effectiveness as rapidly as inhaled substances, thereby
eliminating any practical reason for smoking or vaping and their potential harm
to users’ throats and lungs.
Lexaria has licensed its technology to multiple companies in
the cannabis and tobacco industries. The company operates a licensed in-house
research laboratory and its IP portfolio includes 16 patents granted and over
60 patents pending worldwide. The company received a cannabis research and
development license from Health Canada in August (http://ibn.fm/mRaIh), and
recently announced the closing of private placement fund-raising for gross
proceeds of about $820,000 (http://ibn.fm/WFDoK)
with additional warrant opportunities.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates
relating to LXRP are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/LXRP
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