Cannabis cultivation is the most common way to produce THC or CBD on a large scale, but it’s not the only method anymore as scientists and researchers strive to develop faster and more-efficient cannabinoid production technologies for medical applications.
Carlsbad-based Librede Inc. revealed in 2018 that they had patented a proprietary process to produce CBDA using yeast.
La Jolla-based CB Therapeutics is currently awaiting a patent on a five-day method.
On Tuesday, FSD Pharma Inc., and Solarvest BioEnergy Inc. announced their signing of a definitive collaborative research and development agreement to explore the production of cannabinoids using algae.
In February, the two companies signed a letter of intent to apply Solarvest’s algae platform to develop pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids.
Algae-based technologies are commonly used in the production of biofuel and nutritional supplements as algae is able produce a range of bioactive recombinant proteins that can create a wide variety of molecules.
Researchers are looking to use algal technology to produce bio-synthetic cannabinoids in hopes of creating revolutionary medicines and treatments.
“We are extremely excited to collaborate with Solarvest, and work towards identifying alternative methods of cannabinoid production using algal technology,” said FSD Pharma Executive Co-Chairman and CEO. “Methods that could one day lead to breakthrough medicines,”
Solarvest will be starting a proof of concept research project to verify that algae is capable of expressing pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids.
FSD and Solarvest have allocated $1 million for the two-year CBD project and created a joint review committee to monitor the study’s progress to make budget and timeline assessments.
Solarvest CEO Gerri Greenham says that research and production times will be cut drastically as the full growth cycle of algae is around 100 hours as opposed to cannabis plants which are measured in months.
