With a legal market size last year of around $2.7 billion, which is projected to expand by a whopping 300 percent over the next four years to around $10.8 billion according to a recent report from ArcView Market Research, the market for cannabis in the U.S. is fueling one of the fastest growing industries the country has to offer. Given that there is yet considerable room for expansion nationwide, as well as positive/widespread consumer sentiment that continues to drive legislative easing of legal restrictions on both medical and recreational use, the industry is primed to blossom nationally, from medical marijuana (MMJ) being legal in just 23 states, D.C. and the territory of Puerto Rico, and recreational use being allowed in Alaska, Colorado, D.C., Oregon and Washington.
The profound benefits of easily tolerable and safe medicines based on established and emerging cannabis science, which have been demonstrated thus far in areas like epilepsy, largely speak for themselves and this vector is an extremely important one for the future of the industry as well, as it will continue to be the narrow end of the wedge for the development of the broader market. This market will eventually contain a rich variety of everything from edibles and extracts by developers like Nutritional High International (OTCQB: SPLIF), to frontline cannabinoid medicines from companies like GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH), such as the multiple sclerosis-related spasticity drug Sativex®, or the recently FDA Orphan Drug Designation approved Epidiolex©, designed to treat severe forms of epilepsy.
Another major driver of legislative reform on this issue has of course been tax revenue and with Washington recently noting how it has successfully emulated Colorado’s own achievements in this area, raking in some $250 million in sales over the past year and realizing around $62 million in excise taxes (a figure 72 percent higher than initially forecast), it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the future of the cannabis industry here in America will look like. Indeed, it feels like the end of the alcohol prohibition era to many investors and some of the small to mid-cap companies out there today, who are still just cutting their teeth, could be tomorrow’s juggernauts, rivaling some of the top players in the $170 billion plus U.S. alcoholic beverages market, like Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), Diageo (NYSE: DEO), and Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP).
The key to maturing into such a juggernaut however is a difficult to pull off combination of visionary business modeling, talented personnel, logistical capacity, marketing, understanding of the end-user dynamics, and most importantly the quality of the product itself. This is where an up-and-coming biopharma development company with strong roots in cutting-edge plant biology and cultivation technology like GrowBLOX Sciences (OTC: GBLX) really shines. With an integrated approach to the market, spanning its proprietary grow technology based on tissue sample-based cloning and a controlled environment that yields consistently high-grade product, which is ideal for both consumers and pharma development purposes alike, through to a well-thought-out commercialization and marketing strategy, GBLX is one of the few “pot stocks” around today with a full-spectrum approach to the industry that could emerge as a one of tomorrow’s sector juggernauts.
By leveraging the company’s proprietary TissueBLOX, GrowBLOX, and CureBLOX platforms, GBLX is able to deliver genetically consistent, high-grade strains of certified raw cannabis materials and blends that will not only resonate with consumers in the end markets and fetch premium prices, while simultaneously priming the pump for accelerated human trialing of cannabis-based medicines. Because the company’s lab-based analytical methods allow GBLX to make precise determinations about key strains and the profile of active ingredients in those strains, and because of the company’s tight post-processing via its ExtractionLAB technology, GrowBLOX Sciences is effectively at the forefront of cannabis drug discovery capabilities, due to its ability to target and cultivate the best strains, and to do so in an environment which eliminates almost all of the variables that otherwise represent risk factors that must be compensated for.
Able to reduce the typical 15 to 20 year development window and billion plus required to bring a new drug to market, GBLX’s accelerated drug discovery program harnesses in-house strain science, the ability to cultivate genetically pure and identical plants, as well as the processing technology needed to rapidly establish FDA FastTrack Approvals or Orphan Drug designations. Moreover, the company’s GBLX-PRO app leverages Big Data harvesting techniques in order to create a real-time feedback loop with end-users, allowing for the rapid establishment of highly coordinated strain profile information, cannabis safety profiling, and usage-based symptom relief data. Cannabis-based medicine development targets run the gamut from cancer treatments, cardio protection, compromised immune system products and inflammation fighters, to indications for treating metabolic syndrome, neurological disorders like epilepsy, and more standard fare such as pain management.
The combination of this accelerated drug discovery pipelining solution with the revenue potential from consistently high-grade materials and blends output to the dispensary market is only the beginning of the story for GBLX though, as the company has already shipped out production-model GrowBLOX units to its GB Sciences Nevada and GB Sciences Puerto Rico operations. With a $1.75 million funding commitment established via Pacific Leaf Ventures to get the company’s 4000 pounds per year Nevada-based Cultivation Lab up and running, as well as a clean, highly-efficient brick and mortar dispensary model known as The Apothecary in the works, and an advanced vending machine on the table that easily rivals or surpasses Medbox’s implementation (OTC: MDBX), GrowBLOX Sciences is already well on its way to becoming one of the top integrated operators in the industry.
Tight branding and marketing at the consumer level, combined with high-grade product and an ability to consistently produced scalable quantities for both direct consumption and drug development will be the keys to GBLX’s long-term success.
Learn more by visiting www.growblox.com
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