The company collaborated with the National Research Council of Canada to examine new formulations of Lexaria's delivery platform technology
() (OTCMKTS:LXRP) said Thursday it has completed its collaboration with the Canada’s national research body that led to exciting new findings for the company’s patented DehydraTECH technology.
DehydraTECH is a delivery platform that 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 primary goal of the research and development program with the National Research Council of Canada was to find out whether DehydraTECH caused new molecular entities (NME) through its processing.
READ: Lexaria Bioscience crafts new DehydraTECH innovation, files patents
Lexaria told shareholders in a statement that it was happy to report that no covalent-bonded NME was created, clearing one hurdle in the path to regulatory approval. Technologies that do create NMEs can be held up in the regulatory process to prove that they are safe for human consumption.
Of the 50 formulations created in the study, 33 were selected for in-depth analysis. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) tested included THC, CBD, different types of nicotine and ibuprofen, while formulations also studied fatty acids and oils.
The formulations were then tested using various techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance and Fournier transform infrared spectroscopy, both of which revealed no shift in the spectral positioning of the APIs in any of the formulations tested. The results indicate a lack of any covalent-bonded NME.
The study also revealed that Lexaria’s formulations showed no chemical modifications or degradation of APIs in highly acidic levels of pH 1.12 and mildly acidic levels of pH 4.82, which could have implications for the infused beverage industry. Many flavored beverage products from Gatorade, Powerade, Dasani and others have a pH of 2.73 to 3.05, Lexaria noted in its release.
“Since mildly acidic formulas are used in the vast majority of beverages sold in North America today, pH stability testing is a necessary aspect of safely delivering cannabinoids within popular beverage formats and Lexaria's technology is now proven capable of doing so,” the company added.
Additional studies with the National Research Council are underway, it said.
Lexaria's shares were trading 2.8% lower at midday Thursday at C$1.06.
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