Lexaria Bioscience crafts new DehydraTECH innovation, files patents

() (OTCMKTS:LXRP) revealed Tuesday that a new version of the company’s DehydraTECH delivery platform provides "significant improvements" initially geared for use in solid oral dosage forms like capsules, tablets and pills for the pharmaceutical and supplement markets.

DehydraTECH, according to Lexaria, increases intestinal absorption, speeds delivery to the bloodstream and provides taste-masking benefits for orally administered bioactive molecules including cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, nicotine and other molecules.

The Kelowna, British Columbia company's use of a “naturally sourced formulation enhancement” more than doubles DehydraTECH's absorption performance, said Lexaria in a statement, indicating that it has filed a new patent application linked to the innovation.

READ: Lexaria’s DehydraTECH combined with nanotech techniques delivers more CBD into brain tissue by over tenfold

On March 20, Lexaria started running animal tests with multiple objectives that included evaluating enhanced DehydraTECH formulations that might offer better performance. 

In this arm of the animal study, Lexaria tested its DehydraTECH delivery technology with compounds postulated to behave in a synergistic fashion for enhanced gastro-intestinal absorption.

Test results

In the study, 10 male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered identically sourced CBD at a rate of 25 milligram per kilogram of bodyweight.

Delivery of CBD into the bloodstream was measured at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes after dosing. DehydraTECH-enabled CBD was measurable in animal blood within 2 to 4 minutes after dosing.

On May 15, 2019 the Company reported that DehydraTECH achieved a CBD blood concentration level that was 475% more than a generic industry medium chain triglyceride (MCT) coconut-oil formulation 15 minutes after dosing.

On Tuesday, the company reports that enhanced DehydraTECH led to 811% more CBD delivery into blood than generic industry MCT coconut-oil formulations; and 110% more CBD into blood than DehydraTECH in its traditional format.

Here are the main findings:

Enhanced DehydraTECH delivered roughly twice as much CBD to animal blood at all measured time points in the study from the 15-minute mark onwards, compared to traditional DehydraTECH; and during the same time points from 717% to 1098% more CBD than the generic industry MCT coconut oil formulations Enhanced DehydraTECH delivered more CBD to blood in just 12 minutes than the MCT coconut-oil formulation was able to achieve at any point during the one hour test duration. Enhanced DehydraTECH is even faster acting, reaching a maximum blood concentration level in just 45 minutes compared to traditional DehydraTECH at 50 minutes and the MCT coconut oil formulation at 57 minutes. Enhanced DehydraTECH delivered 1,937% more CBD into animal brain tissues after 8 hours compared to generic industry MCT coconut oil formulations; and 487% more than traditional DehydraTECH.

Both traditional DehydraTECH and enhanced DehyraTECH delivered maximum blood-concentration levels prior to the 60-minute end-of-test, with levels tapering off thereafter.

The DehydraTECH technology demonstrates both fast onset and fast offset, which is of interest for repeated dosing.

New drug delivery performance thresholds

DehydraTECH's in its traditional format has been used commercially since 2014 and by technology licensees since 2016.

Lexaria has introduced innovations for oral cannabis formats such as capsules, beverages and edibles. DehydraTECH has been equally useful in other sectors such as the nicotine industry where Lexaria has licensed its technology to one of the largest nicotine products companies in the world.

Enhanced DehydraTECH seems particularly adept at delivering previously unreachable quantities of CBD across the blood brain barrier and into brain tissue; more so than even the most advanced nanotech as previously reported utilized in these studies.

With this new innovation, the company is establishing new performance thresholds for drug delivery technology, with tested performance of 8x (blood plasma) and more than 19x (brain tissue) of generic industry formulations, said Lexaria.

More studies

The company is planing more studies this year to characterize enhanced DehydraTECH and optimize it into product applications for its licensees.

The specific nature of enhanced DehydraTECH was undisclosed for proprietary reasons until the new patent filings are published.

Although the current tests were limited to CBD absorption, Lexaria expects knowledge from the current innovation to apply equally to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as well to enhance formulation innovation for nicotine and various pharmaceutical compounds named in the Lexaria patent suite.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on : @UttaraProactive