Kirsten Blake, VP Emerald Scientific
Wes Burk, Emerald Scientific
The evolution of cannabis science continues to move at a lightning pace. During the last 18 months, there has been a significant shift from cannabis safety to cannabinoid efficacy and disease applications. Historically, cannabis science has not followed a typical pharmaceutical model but evidence suggests that this is evolving. This shift will affect most verticals in the industry including cultivation, production and manufacturing, and certainly quality assurance laboratories. Cultivators have new resources for improved pathogen and disease identification while providing an opportunity to breed for specific compound production and plant disease resistance. Extractors and manufacturers, through scientific advancements, are more than ever-increasing efficiency and isolation techniques, improving delivery methods and formulations, creating novel cannabinoids, and ultimately improving product quality and reproducibility. The maturation of cannabis consumers and regulatory influences coupled with analytical advancements are radically impacting the bottom line for quality assurance labs as well.
There is now a greater demand for accurate identification and quantification of cannabinoids, contaminants, and an expansive list of target analytes which is driving the development of standard testing methodologies. However, this segment continues to be plagued by bad actors and bad ethics. Currently, the value of cannabis as a commodity is overly dependent on the content of a single analyte; THC. This continues to inspire lab shopping, certificate of analysis manipulation and leads to broad economic challenges for lab profitability.
In addition to the impact on existing cannabis verticals, the evolution of science in the industry will create opportunities for entirely new business models such as cannabinoid creation outside traditional cultivation, the development of clinical research and myriad products for and from this work, and the introduction of novel compounds related to the endocannabinoid system.
Join us Tuesday, October 25th at 1pm ET for an update and exploration of the state of cannabis science and how the changing landscape can impact your profitability.
