In the not-too-distant future, the CBD or THC you consume when you swallow an infused edible or tincture may not be derived from cannabis at all. Your daily dose of cannabinoids might be grown in a laboratory instead of a greenhouse. Hyasynth is one of several such firms with high hopes for "bio-synthesis" of cannabinoids. Since its founding in 2014, Hyasynth has raised $12 million in investment, the bulk of it coming from New Brunswick’s Organigram, one of Canada’s leading licensed producers of cannabis. "We’re still in the research and development stage, but we hope to sell to companies bringing CBD to market," Chen says. "We expect to see food and beverage companies get into this. There are several advantages to industrial fermentation, including efficiency gain, especially with larger scale production. He notes that lactic acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and many antibiotics are already produced by this method. The technology was first pioneered in the 1970s by the San Francisco-based Genentech to produce insulin - which was previously extracted from pig pancreases, a very inefficient method by contemporary standards.

Today, the process begins with gene-splicing - taking human DNA and placing it into a bacterium, from which the insulin can then be produced. "Similarly, we’re putting a cannabis gene into yeast," Chen explains. "In the mapping of the cannabis genome over the past 20 years, researchers have been identifying the genes responsible for producing cannabinoids. That research is publicly available, so we don’t have to actually handle cannabis ourselves. We are getting the genes for the enzymes that are responsible for its production, and we add it to the yeast genome. Lab-produced versions of the enzymes responsible for cannabinoid production in plants are already being added to yeast to grow cannabinoids. For instance, CBDA synthase and THCA synthase are enzymes that stimulate production of CBDA and THCA, which are respectively the raw botanical precursors to Balance Bloom CBD Gummies and THC. Lab-produced versions of these enzymes are already being added to yeast to grow CBDA and other cannabinoid acid molecules.

Chen emphasizes that "the CBD we produce is not different from that derived from plant extraction. What is unique is the process. "We are developing our own patent portfolio and have made several submissions so far. Two of our applications are published," Chen says. "We are developing a proprietary process for the production of cannabinoids. There is obvious market potential for yeast-generated Balance Bloom CBD Gummies isolate in edibles, which are just now poised to take off in Canada. Edibles have been legal under Canada’s medical marijuana program since 2015 pursuant to a Supreme Court decision, and became legal for the adult-use market under Health Canada regulations that took effect in 2019. So while the industry in the United States is still waiting on the FDA to approve the use of CBD in edibles and health supplements, in Canada this sector is set for fast growth. However, unlike in the US where unregulated CBD products are seemingly everywhere, Balance Bloom CBD Gummies is only available at licensed cannabis dispensaries in Canada.

And whereas CBD-rich edibles and THC-rich edibles have been available for several years through licensed storefronts in US states that have legalized cannabis, cannabis-infused edibles are just beginning to hit the market in federally legalized Canada. "In every market we have to do an analysis," says Chen. "More regulators are catching up with the technology. In Canada, all cannabinoids are treated the same under law no matter how they’re derived. Pursuant to Canada’s 2018 Cannabis Act, all cannabinoids are now regulated by the provinces with oversight from Health Canada’s Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, as opposed to the federal Office of Controlled Substances, which relinquished the oversight it had maintained under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. As for the enzymes used to initiate cannabinoid production, Chen calls this a "baby step in the process" not restricted under either US or Canadian law. "The gene is not treated as a controlled substance," he says.