Presenting Lygos CBx: New company to scale low-cost fermented cannabinoid production
The company’s proprietary fermentation-enabled process offers sustainability and economic advantages over traditional extraction techniques.
28 Oct 2020 --- Sustainable specialty ingredient provider Lygos has launched Lygos CBx, a new company focused on delivering a wide range of high-quality, pure and sustainable non-plant-based cannabinoids.
Lygos has integrated its own technology with Librede – a biosynthetic company recently acquired by Lygos, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – to create Lygos CBx.
“The launch of Lygos CBx is a reflection of all the hard work required to develop a novel production platform that can introduce disruptive consumer products and brands in a rapid and repeatable manner,” says Eric Steen, CEO of Lygos.
“Today, we are delivering high-quality, ultra-pure and sustainable cannabinoids and partnering with industry leaders to help meet the growing demand for these next-generation products.”
A variety of cannabinoids
Lygos’ recent endeavors have focused on producing a variety of cannabinoids and cannabinoid-based products in an environmentally safe, sustainable and cost-effective manner for commercial applications.
Lygos CBx is focused on delivering a wide range of high-quality, sustainable, non-plant-based cannabinoids.Lygos CBx utilizes its novel production pathway to provide a high-performance alternative to agricultural-based cannabinoid production.
The company currently offers a full menu of common, rare or novel cannabinoids, along with leading bulk supply, formulation, custom synthesis, and efficacy services. It aims to help meet the particular needs of its current and future customers in the consumer products and pharmaceuticals industries.
Lygos CBx is actively engaging partnerships and expects to make additional co-development and commercialization announcements before the end of the year.
Boosting quality control
Lygos CBx’s bio-based production platform features important quality control measures that ensure pure, consistent and replicable ingredients over time, the company notes.
The technology produces precise, specific and isolated cannabinoids and avoids issues of separation and purification compared to plant-based production.
The modular platform is able to produce a variety of both acidic and decarboxylated forms.
In addition to the production of natural molecules, the same modular platform can also create cannabinoid-like derivatives for pharmaceutical applications that target the human endocannabinoid system.
Fermented CBD and alternatives
Previously, Lygos partnered with Open Book Extracts, a cannabinoid health and wellness company, to develop nutraceutical supplement products featuring Lygos’ cannabigerol (CBG).
Meanwhile, Cellibre recently closed an “oversubscribed” round of bridge financing to bring its fermented cannabinoids closer to commercialization. The California-based start-up is using its technology to improve the sourcing, production and consumption of cannabinoids.
In addition, presenting a promising alternative to cannabidiol (CBD), Amyris has successfully scaled up the commercial production of CBG, which is produced via industrial fermentation. The company expects to deliver around one ton of high purity CBG through fermentation as an alternative to the traditional production method of extraction from the Cannabis sativa L. plant.
In the same space, Symrise developed a cannabinoid that the company expects will “revolutionize the pharmaceutical market.” Coined Canapure, the nature-identical alternative to traditional CBD allows the pharmaceutical industry to access a synthetically produced option that is suitable both as an active pharmaceutical ingredient and as an intermediate product for the development of new substances.
Edited by Kristiana Lalou
