OBX and Radicle Science launch CBD validation alliance to salvage waning consumer trust

17 Sep 2021 --- US-based cannabis health and wellness company Open Book Extracts (OBX) is expanding its partnership with medical research company Radicle to launch what it says will be the world’s first alliance to scientifically validate cannabidiol (CBD) products.

Speaking to NutritionInsight, Pelin Thorogood, executive chairwoman and co-founder of Radicle Science, asserts that a concerning lack of consumer trust in CBD producers is slowing market development and the spread of CBD’s nutritional and medicinal benefits. 

“The top reasons consumers buy CBD are to alleviate pain, sleep disturbances or anxiety. However, many unanswered questions remain regarding the safety and quality of products containing CBD for their effectiveness across those needed states,” she says. 

“The FDA has called for more real-world evidence to support these use cases and to provide scientific guidance on usage for consumers and healthcare providers. Until now, that data has not been available.”

Through this alliance, the partnership will begin pairing quality innovation and custom product development from OBX with “unbiased scientific rigor” in natural products research from Radicle Science to fill the void, provide additional data, and help answer those pressing questions for consumers to have access to trusted cannabinoid products.

OBX says trust in CBD manufacturers is low and consumers need reassurance.Slow development 
The process of researching CBD products is full of challenges. This has historically deterred and even prohibited many brands from obtaining data on their product safety and effectiveness, explains Thorogood.

Research can be expensive, slow and restricted, particularly with the unclear regulatory status for CBD products at the federal level, he adds. 

In addition, research is typically conducted on rather homogenous populations due to the high-cost recruitment and operations of physical (site-based) clinical trials, limiting the applicability of the results to the broader population. 

“We are able to overcome each of these barriers with our 100% virtual, intentionally heterogeneous, direct-to-consumer approach that not only reduces the cost and time to complete natural product studies by more than 10 times but also increases their scale by 10 times to empower brands and consumers alike with rigorous, scientific data on formulation effectiveness,” she asserts. 

Five-step plan 
The alliance plans to develop infrastructure to deliver expert support and research-backed insights to guide every phase of the product development process, from ideation and ingredient selection to formulation and consumer targeting. 

Enough serious companies looking for scientific validation will join the alliance, predicts OBX.The combined Radicle Science-OBX alliance experience will move through the following phases:

1. OBX partners with brands seeking to enter the market, devoting OBX resources to understand the brand vision, developing product concepts, conducting thorough market research and analyzing costs.
2. OBX creates customized, sophisticated formulations to address the desired outcomes, high-quality sourcing ingredients to deliver prototypes to test the formulation hypotheses. 
3. Radicle Science conducts a rigorous randomized controlled trial of the various formulations to reveal differential effects of various ingredients, combinations of ingredients, dosages and delivery methods on various health-related need states. 
4. Brands select packaging, labels and other physical concepts for the selected product in a fully customizable experience.
5. The OBX and Radicle Science validated product is sent to production. 

Not all products are created equal 
Given that thousands of brands offer hundreds of thousands of products in the current CBD market, aligning industry around this new alliance and its mission may be difficult.

“Not all CBD products are created equal. Certain brands may not see the value in the mission of the alliance, perhaps due to a lack of interest in the true scientific rigor and focus on quality – convincing those brands to participate in the alliance may present a challenge,” admits Nicole Brown, OBX’s chief innovation officer.

“However, most of the established powerhouse brands of the industry alongside innovative newcomers are dedicated to creating high-quality, safe, efficacious products to support better health and wellness outcomes,” she asserts. 

Those brands are deeply invested in pursuing the research to completely shift how CBD is perceived, powering a movement the industry has not seen to date. Together, these companies aim to equip consumers with credible, scientific information to make informed choices about their health.

Moving forward 
OBX and Radicle Science have established internal teams dedicated to developing the alliance. “Our collective team with backgrounds from the food, beverage, dietary supplement, nutrition, scientific and pharmaceutical industries providing deep expertise in product development, consumer market research and scientific validation for members of the alliance,” says Brown. 

OBX is also investing in a study, which launches this month, that will compare the impact of newly developed formulations with targeted ratios of pure minor cannabinoids on pain severity and other health outcomes. 

It will include one arm with the commercially available CBD brand Woven Earth – a full spectrum CBD product with consumer-reported indications of reduced pain and inflammation.

In June, OBX closed an US$11.5 million series B funding round. The company will use the financing to drive new research and an international expansion and help personalize the company’s CBD offerings.

By Louis Gore-Langton