$LXRP ---- NEWS RELEASE ---- b>Kelowna,
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---- NEWS RELEASE ----
b]Kelowna, British Columbia - October 9, 2020 - Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (OTC:LXRP) (CSE:LXX) (CNSX:LXX.CN) (the "Company" or "Lexaria", a global innovator in drug delivery platforms updates the status of the business relationship between Altria Ventures Inc. ("Altria" and Lexaria Nicotine LLC ("Lexaria Nicotine".[/b]
Altria now has non-exclusive licence rights to use DehydraTECH TM for both the US and worldwide markets under a predefined royalty structure payable to Lexaria Nicotine. Altria owns 16.67% of the equity of Lexaria Nicotine in connection with Altria's funding of Lexaria's nicotine R&D program in 2019. Lexaria Bioscience Corp. owns the remaining 83.33% equity of Lexaria Nicotine. Altria holds one seat on the Board of Directors of Lexaria Nicotine and has no ownership or board representation of Lexaria Bioscience Corp.
Altria has not exercised its First Warrant Tranche (as such term is defined in the Warrant and Option Agreement dated as of January 15, 2019 among Lexaria, its majority-owned subsidiary Lexaria Nicotine LLC and Altria) to invest a further staged payment into Lexaria Nicotine and that warrant therefore expired along with Altria's former exclusive access to DehydraTECH for the US market, at 11:59 PM on October 8, 2020.
"The research program initiated in 2019 with Altria significantly advanced our understanding of our patented DehydraTECH drug delivery technology and indirectly led to additional advancements we are already exploiting in other market sectors," said Chris Bunka, CEO of Lexaria. "We have since entered a R&D framework agreement with an international leader in the nicotine market and look forward to additional developments in advancing reduced-risk methods of oral nicotine delivery through our newly strengthened ability to serve the US market."
On October 22, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA" issued its first-ever modified risk tobacco product ("MRTP" ruling related to eight smokeless tobacco products designed for oral use. The FDA allowed claims for these products that using these products "instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis." Lexaria strongly supports the use of orally-delivered nicotine products as a sensible alternative to combusted tobacco and believes DehydraTECH will play an important role in this alternative.
The 2019 R&D program was initiated to evaluate oral nicotine delivery performance of an earlier 2018 DehydraTECH oral nicotine formulation . The primary results related to the early-stage DehydraTECH formulation were that:
- It demonstrated acceptable chemical and microbiological stability;
- It was well tolerated in a 7-day, repeat-dose acute toxicology study in rats with no test article-related effects on survival, macroscopic findings, or organ weights and no test article-related histopathological tissue findings;
- It created no issues with throat burn and irritation in oral pouch and chew formats at standard commercial doses upon small scale sensory analysis in humans; and
- It demonstrated formation of a unique mixture of nanoparticles without formation of a covalently linked, new molecular entity construct upon molecular characterization by Canada's National Research Council (NRC); and is therefore not believed to be preclusive of Premarket Tobacco Product Application ("PMTA" applicability in this respect.
Lexaria continues to advance its R&D programs and showcase its advanced technology to tobacco, nicotine and pharmaceutical companies and continuously seeks to expand its portfolio and caliber of research collaborators and commercial partners.
About Lexaria
Lexaria Bioscience Corp's. (OTCQX: LXRP) proprietary drug delivery technology, DehydraTECH(TM), improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) enter the bloodstream by promoting healthier ingestion methods and increasing the effectiveness of fat-soluble active molecules, thereby lowering overall dosing. The Company's technology can be applied to many different ingestible product formats, including foods, beverages, oral suspensions, tablets, and capsules. DehydraTECH increases bio-absorption by up to 5-10x, reduces time of onset from 1 - 2 hours to 15 - 20 minutes, and masks unwanted tastes for orally administered bioactive molecules, including anti-virals, cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), nicotine, and other molecules. Lexaria has licensed DehydraTECH to multiple companies in the cannabis industry for use in cannabinoid beverages, edibles, and oral products and to a world-leading tobacco producer for the development of smokeless, oral-based nicotine products. Lexaria operates a licensed in-house research laboratory and holds a robust intellectual property portfolio with 16 patents granted and over 60 patents pending worldwide. For more information, please visit www.lexariabioscience.com .
INVESTOR CONTACT:
ir@lexariabioscience.com