- Oral drug delivery innovator Lexaria Bioscience is focused on providing alternatives to smoked or inhaled tobacco and cannabis products to help consumers reduce the threat to their lungs
- Lexaria’s patented technology — DehydraTECH(TM) — is a solution that processes active pharmaceutical ingredients into a powder or liquid form that can then be ingested with less harm than inhalation, while providing rapidity similar to inhalation substances
- DehydraTECH has previously shown the ability to move CBD into test subjects’ bloodstreams up to 20-fold higher than standard generic formulations
- New testing shows that DehydraTECH can similarly deliver THC to test subjects’ bloodstreams at rates faster and well above those of standard formulations for oral THC use
A leader in innovative drug delivery platforms,
Lexaria Bioscience (NASDAQ: LEXX) aims to reduce or eliminate the use of inhaled and addictive products by focusing on ways to deliver nicotine into smokers’ bloodstreams at levels comparable to the nerve-settling relief they get from cigarettes and other tobacco products, providing them an alternative to purchasing store brands likely to harm their lungs.
The company has enhanced its pursuit by testing its solution — its patented DehydraTECH technology — as an alternative to smoked or vaped cannabis products as well, and is reporting continued breakthroughs in DehydraTECH’s performance against the industry standard medium-chain triglyceride-based control formulation (coconut oil).
“The cannabis industry continues to use outdated formulations and processes that ignore the needs of modern THC users,” Lexaria CEO Chris Bunka stated in an Oct. 13 news release regarding DehydraTECH-delivered tetrahydrocannabinol effectiveness (
https://ibn.fm/Gs0Ni). “THC users today include medicinal and pharmaceutical users, all of whom need technology that doesn’t rely on harmful delivery methods such as smoking but still provides rapid onset and high bioavailability which common oral formats do not offer. Our study findings demonstrated rapid delivery, increased overall THC delivery, and higher brain tissue delivery; all of which is consistent with the wants and needs of THC customers.”
Specifically, the THC absorption study showed that the standard coconut oil THC formulation required 45 minutes to reach the same levels that DehydraTECH-THC produced after 15 minutes. In the meantime, the DehydraTECH-THC was continuing to achieve higher levels of bloodstream delivery up until about the three-hour mark — well past coconut oil THC’s peak — and didn’t fall back to levels equal to the coconut oil medium until about the six-hour mark.
The testing also noted that in two samplings of subjects’ brain tissue, DehydraTECH-THC levels were effectively twice as high as the coconut oil controls, demonstrating the further potential of DehydraTECH’s technology. This builds on previous results showing DehydraTECH can deliver cannabidiol (“CBD”) into the bloodstream at a rate 2,178 percent higher than generic industry control formulations, with 1,737 percent more CBD being moved across the blood-brain barrier than with those generic formulations
Lexaria’s testing is focused on medical applications of THC delivery. The Harvard Medical School’s publishing wing has noted that the most common use for medical cannabis in the United States is to control pain, particularly in response to select chronic conditions (
https://ibn.fm/Hm8uy).
Lexaria’s technology is also undergoing clinical and pre-clinical trials for potential use in treating hypertension, viral infections and other conditions currently targeted by CBD-based nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical drugs
DehydraTECH processes active pharmaceutical ingredientsinto a powder or liquid form for oral delivery. Other testing has shown its ability to become rapidly bioavailable by bypassing first-pass-liver processing, while also avoiding alteration of the drug substance during its conversion in such a way that would reduce the drug’s effectiveness or create unexpected drug entities requiring further regulatory attention for approval (
https://ibn.fm/1Ccyq).
“The fact that (DehydraTECH) is fast means that smokers might not be frustrated waiting for their nicotine experience to begin, the way they have been with traditional nicotine products such as gums and lozenges,” Bunka said in a Forbes interview about the solution’s potential impact on the tobacco market (
https://ibn.fm/Bk9lW). “My father also died from lung cancer …, so I am no fan.”
For more information, visit the company’s website at
www.LexariaBioscience.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to LEXX are available in the company’s newsroom at
https://ibn.fm/LEXX
