The Use of High Pressure is Transforming the Nutraceuticals (CBD), Food & Beverage, Healthcare, and other Billion-Dollar Markets

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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.

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. PBIO is the biotech pioneer behind a range of pressure-based technology platforms that have been helping researchers and manufacturers across pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, agrochem, and many other industries develop more  effective, reliable, and stable products for consumers. 

Hundreds of research and manufacturing labs worldwide are already using the technology, which relies on precision-controlled pressure to manipulate substances ranging from oils to proteins and other biomolecules. 

While many high value medical sciences companies — like Pfizer PFE, Merck MRK, and AstraZeneca AZN — are always searching for cutting-edge mechanisms like this, Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (PBI) jumped the innovation gap and has made a significant contribution to the sector. The company says that it now finds itself amid a budding market for high-pressure equipment that is forecasted to exceed $1.2 billion by 2030. 

PBI’s portfolio includes 3 patented pressure-based technology platforms: the Pressure Cycling Technology (PCT) platform, the BaroFold platform, and the Ultra Shear Technology™ (UST™) platform. Here’s how each works, how they’re revolutionizing the industries they’re used in, and why they offer the potential to completely transform multi-billion-dollar global markets.

Pressure Cycling Technology Helps Researchers Process Samples Faster, More Reliably

The PCT platform alternates cycles of ambient and ultra-high pressure levels to exquisitely control biomolecular reactions — a key step in the design, development, and quality control of drugs as well as in biomarker discovery, forensics, and countless other applications.

Its patented high pressure system can apply pressure up to 45,000 pounds per square inch (PSI) to the biological samples (e.g., cells, pathogens) and compounds (e.g., enzymes, hormones) researchers put into special pressure resistant tubes that are then placed into its pressure chamber. As a result, those researchers can avoid time-consuming, inefficient, and sometimes destructive alternatives like using heat or chemicals to manipulate the samples they’re working with at ambient temperature and pressure. 

That same high-pressure system can be used to inactivate pathogens in blood, tissue or other biological material for research purposes; manufacture vaccines; prepare blood and tissue biopsy samples for analysis; and perform many more of the essential lab functions behind important medical research. 

With over 350 PCT platforms in use at more than 225 facilities worldwide, the PCT platform has helped researchers identify new biomarkers, which in time are expected to help diagnose disease and predict treatment outcomes. 

It’s also given forensics teams and government agencies the tools they need to fight crime by offering a faster, more reliable way to analyze DNA samples, especially older or more challenging samples like skeletal remains or fingernail fragments. The PCT platform can extract larger quantities of genetic material from these cryptic samples than standard methods, while also removing the collagen, calcium and other components that can prevent the accurate creation of a genetic fingerprint. 

The BaroFold Platform Offers Improved Processing for Protein-Based Treatments

The BaroFold platform uses high pressure to disaggregate proteins and then allows for controlled refolding of those same proteins. Protein-based treatments have exploded in popularity over the past decades because they offer the potential to be a more targeted treatment with fewer negative side effects. 

However, making these biotherapeutics has been difficult because, by nature, protein molecules tend to stick together (aggregate), making it difficult for researchers to work with them and even more difficult to administer them to patients. 

The BaroFold platform is the much-needed breakthrough in the protein therapeutics space. The high pressures applied by the system have been shown to not only effectively break apart those stubborn protein aggregates but also to enable researchers to refold them into the structure that Mother Nature intended them to have in, but in a very controlled, consistent way. 

As a result, manufacturers can produce effective, consistent protein-based drugs faster, at a higher scale and at a lower cost, making the innovative new treatments affordable and more widely available to the patients who need them.

Ultra Shear Technology Makes Water Soluble Nanoemulsions

The UST platform uses a combination of ultra-high pressure and intense shear forces to create nanoemulsions of oil-based nutrients like CBD oil, astaxanthin (a powerful antioxidant), and neem oil (natural oil that is routinely used as a strong insecticide). Using up to 45,000 PSI of pressure, the UST platform can break oil drops into millions of nano-sized oil droplets.  If the oil drops contain an active ingredient (e.g. CBD, Astaxanthin, Vitamin D3, or a drug like Prednisone), the active ingredient is then dispersed among the millions of nano-sized oil droplets, which allows (i) in the case of an orally taken solution, the body to absorb a higher percentage of the active ingredient than usual, making it far more bioavailable to the consumer and (ii) in the case of a transdermal solution, the material to penetrate far deeper and faster into the layers of the skin when compared to non-UST processed material.  

By the time the UST process is complete, the droplets are so small that they behave like individual molecules rather than droplets, which helps prevent the oil from recollecting again later —as they normally do in larger emulsions, like salad dressing or natural peanut butter, where the oils separate soon after the emulsion settles.

The resulting nanoemulsion effectively makes the oil-based substance water-soluble. For food and beverage companies, this process means infused products, such as those infused with CBD oil or other health supplements, won’t appear cloudy or separate after sitting on the store shelf for days to weeks. 

For companies like Grove, Inc (GRVI) whose focus is nutritional supplements and wellness products, it means potent antioxidants like astaxanthin, CBD oil, vitamin E or omega-3 fatty acids will have vastly improved bioavailability because the human body can more easily absorb water-soluble ingredients where it would normally struggle to absorb these same nutrients in their oily form.  

Pressure BioSciences states that its various platforms have provided groundbreaking achievements in the biotech space all from the humble mechanics of pressure. With 30 issued patents, over 350 PCT instruments already in the field, over 225 global customers - including some of the top protein labs in the world, and a proactive academic-industry partnership with PBI’s announced Consortium relationship with the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University, PBI and its shareholders are looking forward to what the future holds.

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.