Lexaria Bioscience Corp (OTC:LXRP) (), the developer of the patented DehydraTECH drug delivery platform, laid out its strategic initiatives for 2021 on Thursday, showing a focus on the regulated pharmaceutical and medical market segments.
The company said it will concentrate on four core areas for DehydraTECH when pursuing out-licensing strategies with existing drug manufacturers:
Heart disease, including hypertension, utilizing CBD; Reduced-risk methods of delivering non-combusted nicotine; Improving antiviral drug delivery for applications that include Covid-19, influenza, herpes, hepatitis and AIDS; and Hemp-based CBD business-to-business applicationsREAD: Lexaria Bioscience says volume of DehydraTECH-enabled CBD powders processed is exceeding all expectations
With regard to CBD, Lexaria demonstrated in a 2019 pilot human clinical study that DehydraTECH-processed CBD was associated with a statistically significant slight decrease in human blood pressure.
Generic CBD is known to have poor absorption characteristics, the company said, and typically only about 6% of what is orally ingested actually finds its way into blood circulation. Lexaria's technology has shown an ability to increase absorption by between 100% to 500%.
The company is planning to launch a second exploratory human clinical study intended to expand on the original study. If the study is successful, Lexaria will begin outreach to the cardiovascular disease drug industry.
DehydraTECH has also shown the ability to significantly increase the speed and ability of orally administered nicotine to reach the blood circulatory system and cross the blood-brain barrier, without the harmful combustion of traditional cigarettes.
Lexaria has developed relationships with Altria Ventures Inc and British American Tobacco, two major tobacco companies.
The company has also been focused on early-stage research into DehydraTECH’s capability to improve the delivery of existing antiviral drugs. This could have implications for viral diseases including HIV, hepatitis, influenza and the coronavirus.
Many antiviral drugs are currently administered via injection, the company said, a process that usually requires a healthcare professional and makes mass dosing more complicated and costly. Lexaria believes DehydraTECH could make it possible for some of these drugs to be administered using an oral tablet or capsule.
Lexaria has designed a human clinical pilot study to test DehydraTECH in delivering higher proportions of antiviral drugs into the bloodstream. The company has approval from a hospital ethics board, conditional on federal government approval.
That is in addition to an early-stage R&D-focused rodent pharmacokinetic (PK) study to test DehydraTECH's ability to deliver a higher proportion of existing antiviral drugs into animal blood. Dosing has been completed and data analysis is expected to commence shortly.
On the hemp front, Lexaria previously reported six-fold growth in its CBD B2B processing division of more than 500% in its fiscal 1st quarter ended November 30. Third-party corporate demand for DehydraTECH to improve the delivery and performance characteristics of CBD has exceeded expectations, the company said.
Demand from corporate purchasers for DehydraTECH-enabled CBD powders is expected to exceed 8 million servings during the current quarter and to continue to rise into 2021. Lexaria's hemp business division intends to discontinue the sale of its direct-to-consumer CBD products and will focus on the high-growth B2B CBD powder processing segment and on out-licensing to generate royalty revenues from third-party companies.
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