Nextleaf Focused on Owning The Largest Patent Portfolio for the Extraction, Distillation, and Delivery of Cannabinoids

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Health Canada Standard Processor and Vancouver, B.C.-based cannabis tech company Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. OILS OILFF announced that it was granted its 15th patent from The United States Patent and Trademark Office for the extraction and purification of THC and CBD on June 23.  

This announcement became one of over 80 patents held by the company, and makes it the third-largest portfolio of U.S. cannabis patents to date. 

The Right Technology, a Superior Product, and Upping the Game

Nextleaf Solutions’s technologies are focused on transforming cannabis or hemp biomass to a standardized cannabinoid oil as efficiently as possible. The company aspires to be the world’s most innovative cannabis extractor developing technology for distilling THC and CBD oils for the global wholesale market. At its extraction refinery in Vancouver, more than a half-ton of cannabis biomass can be processed into oil every day. 

One example of how Nextleaf is working to develop high-quality and low-cost distillate products is with its ultrasonic extraction technology, which brought the company its 11th U.S. patent in December 2020. 

Ultrasonic extraction has been noted as an effective and rapid technique for extracting cannabis concentrate, and now Nextleaf has taken this technology to the next level. It’s capable of extracting cannabinoids from cannabis biomass in a non-flammable and inexpensive co-solvent system using a flow-through ultrasonic extraction system.

“This technology has the potential to differentiate from the established extraction methods through the use of an innovative, continuously-fed cannabinoid extraction system,” commented Dr. David Novitski, co-author of Nextleaf’s 11th-issued U.S. patent. “The ability to continuously extract THC from biomass is a gamechanger in the realm of extraction.”

Nextleaf owns two other substantial U.S. patents for the production of THC and CBD prodrugs known as THC-O-Acetate and CBD-O-Acetate. On June 15, the company announced its assembly of a Specialty Molecules Division to focus on the development and commercialization of novel psychoactive compounds such as THC-O-Acetate and CBD-O-Acetate.

Small Team, Big Experience

While other companies focused on funded capacity Nextleaf has taken an asset light, IP heavy approach with a world-class innovation portfolio and less than 25 employees made up of its management, corporate team, scientists, engineers, and technicians. This unique approach allows Nextleaf to stay nimble, keep its overheads low, and adjust to industry conditions quickly and purposefully. Founded in 2017 by Paul Pedersen (CEO), Ryan Ko (CTO), and Charles Ackerman (CFO) Nextleaf’s mission is focused on developing intellectual property around the most efficient methods for producing high-purity THC and CBD molecules at scale. As the company evolves, the development of intellectual property around innovative delivery methods has become core to Nextleaf’s business.  

When the now CEO and CTO met prior to founding Nextleaf, Ko was doing things in extraction that Pedersen had never seen.  

“When we started our company, we acquired a bunch of intellectual property that was created by what I like to call cannabis pioneers or citizen scientists — guys that were doing stuff in California in the 1970s,” commented Pedersen.

“We've surrounded that IP with 40 years of practical experience from our team and professionalized it in the sense that we improved, validated, scaled, and protected a whole bunch of intellectual property. Our goal is to protect what we feel is going to be very valuable commercially to pharmaceutical and big tobacco companies,” ended Pedersen. 

Flawless Strategy

While the U.S. inches toward federal legalization, Nextleaf has taken this time to further validate its technologies in Canada’s federally legal framework and invest in uninterrupted research and development to perfect its technologies. Additionally, the Canadian-based company has continued to file for multiple patents, positioning it for ultimate success within the U.S. and beyond. 

Nextleaf is well on its way to having 100 patents by the end of 2021. The company’s overall vision is to improve cannabis oil economics globally by owning the largest globally protected patent portfolio within cannabis processing technology. . 

Find out more at https://www.nextleafsolutions.com.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.