Pure Extracts Corp., headquartered in Pemberton, British Columbia, is a private, plant-based extraction company with a new vertical in functional mushrooms. The firm is positioned to be the dominant extraction company and a leader in the rapid development and commercialization of functional and medicinal psychedelic products.
The Company’s business model consists of three verticals: in-house brands; toll processing, offering contract cannabis and hemp processing to Canadian Licensed Producers and international partners to sell under their own brands; and white labelling, supplying products, including edibles and custom formulated oils, in consumer-ready packaging for companies licensed to sell cannabis oil extracts and for CPG brands seeking licensed cannabis manufacturing partners.
Market Position
The psychedelic and functional mushroom industries are among the fastest growing in North America. As the industry transitions from dry biomass to extracts, many companies are unprepared for this new opportunity. The global medicinal mushroom market is expected to grow by $13.88 billion annually by 2024.
When assessing investment strategy, market analysts suggest that psychedelics are more comparable to biotech than to cannabis. Unlike traditional biotech, however, psychedelics can claim years of human consumption. Because their efficacy and safety are already well understood, the hurdles for development are likely to be lower. As known molecules, psychedelics won’t spend as much time in discovery and pre-clinical development.
Current research is finding psychedelic benefits including anti-tumor, anti-viral, detoxification, immune function, and mental wellness. As such, psychedelic compounds are now being examined by leading medical research and academic institutions for treatment of depression, PTSD, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, obesity, narcolepsy, OCD, Alzheimer’s, ADHD and drug and alcohol dependence. In 2020, the FDA granted breakthrough therapy status to psychedelics for treatment-resistant depression, with approvals anticipated in 2021.
Pure Extracts is well positioned to partner with organizations planning to develop both functional and psychedelic products. A dealer’s license with Health Canada will enable buying, selling and producing of psychedelics in an EU-GMP-compliant environment. The Company’s 10,000 square foot facility is designed for EU-GMP certification, which allows for international sales. The Company has signed NDAs to explore joint development endeavors for Q4 2020 product launches, as well as an advisory agreement with Dr. Alexander MacGregor, founder of Transpharm Canada Inc. (“TCI”), the parent company of Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology, whose facility is a fully compliant Health Canada licensed Good Manufacturing Practice (“GMP”) manufacturing and testing facility and is a full-service clinical development business that provides clinical trial services to biotechnology companies.
Research on Psychedelics
Naturally occurring psychedelics, like psilocybin mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca, have been used by humans for centuries. First seen as potentially medicinal in 1938 by a chemist at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis), the desired stimulant effect was unsuccessful and therefore the drug was shelved. Twenty years later, in 1958, Sandoz began selling lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to treat mental disorders. From 1950 to 1965, over a thousand scientific papers on these compounds were published. During the 1960s, however, psychedelics made their way out of the lab and onto the street. The war on drugs followed, and psychedelic research essentially ended.
Research continued slowly on the fringes. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies was formed in 1986 with the goal of becoming a leading non-profit psychedelic pharmaceutical company. Still being researched, psychedelics’ primary and most common mechanism of action is agonism of serotonin receptors in the brain, which promotes serotonin production in order to regulate mood.
Growing societal awareness and acceptance of mental illness as a legitimate disease due, in part, to its increasingly prevalence have been a catalyst for a new search for innovative treatments. As such, interest in psychedelic medicines has been revived in recent years.
Extract Segment Leader with Cannabis
Canada’s cannabis industry is dominated by dried flower products. Extract products are estimated to represent only 13% of the market share. With no dominant brands in the cannabis sector, Pure Extracts is the development leader in this segment, which is estimated by Deloitte to be worth $2.7 billion annually. Pure Pulls, the company’s private label brand, is nationally recognized through compliant event sponsorship and ongoing product engagement.
Management Team
Pure Extract is led by a team of dedicated professionals leveraging extensive industry knowledge.
Ben Nikolaevsky, the company’s CEO, has more than a decade of experience in corporate leadership roles across the natural products, agriculture and cannabis sectors. Nikolaevsky has served as CEO at Natura Naturals Inc. and Blue Goose Capital Corp., as well as market vice president at CIBC and chief credit officer & capital markets manager at IBM Global Financing Canada.
Doug Benville founded Pure Extracts and serves as the company’s COO. He is highly proficient in cannabis cultivation, system operations and oil extraction.
Alexander Logie, Pure Extracts’ vice president of business development, has over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector, having most recently served as interim CFO, COO and senior vice president of business development at Natura Naturals Inc., a licensed cannabis producer acquired at the start of 2019.
Andy Gauvin is vice president of sales for Pure Extracts. Gauvin is an accomplished senior sales leader with over 30 years of experience in the cannabis space. Gauvin also brings extensive knowledge of the complex federal and provincial regulatory environment to the Pure Extracts team.
Investment Considerations
- Pure Extracts is the development leader in the Canadian cannabis extract segment, which is valued by Deloitte at $2.7 billion annually.
- The Company is positioned to be the dominant extraction company and a leader in the rapid development and commercialization of functional and medicinal psychedelic products.
- The psychedelic and functional mushroom industries are among the fastest growing in North America, with the global medicinal mushroom market expected to grow by $13.88 billion annually by 2024.
- Growing societal awareness and acceptance of mental illness as a legitimate disease have served as catalysts for a new search for innovative treatments and, as a result, interest in psychedelics.
- Current research is finding psychedelic benefits including anti-tumor, anti-viral, detoxification, immune function, and mental wellness. As such, psychedelic compounds are now being examined by leading medical research and academic institutions for the treatment of depression, PTSD, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, obesity, narcolepsy, OCD, Alzheimer’s, ADHD and drug and alcohol dependence.
