Integumen PLC’s (LON:SKIN) wound care division is expanding to create a scientifically-developed CBD-infused dressing.
Its Wound pHase operation is collaborating with Cellulac (in which Integumen has a 9.35% stake), the University of Limerick and the Irish government-supported Research Centre for Resource Efficiency.
The plan is to process and refine medical grade hemp-derived CBD to create a product for chronic wound and burns dressings.
The group will use the Integumen-developed Labskin and in-house CBD testing expertise alongside Cellulac's new SoniqueFlo enzyme.
“With a growing demand for CBD infused products for their anti-inflammatory and pain relief properties, we believe that our expertise in skin wound repair and burns treatment at Wound pHase, in addition to the testing capabilities of Labskin and commercial knowledge of Integumen's management team, our unique CBD infused pain-relieving wound dressing for chronic wounds will be well received in this growing multi-billion dollar global market," said Integumen chief executive Gerard Brandon.
For uninitiated CBD, or cannabidiol to give it its full name, is the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis and is derived from the hemp plant. It shouldn’t be confused with THC, which gets the user high.
CBD has been linked with a number of medical applications and GW Pharma has developed the first clinically approved CBD-derived drug, called epidiolex, which has been proven to control an acute form of epilepsy.
Increasingly CBD is being infused with skin care products, although its restorative qualities are yet to scientifically proven.
But researchers, including Dr Joseph Cheer, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland, suggest that CBD switches off electrical pulses associated with pain by tweaking the amount of calcium that can get inside the body's nerves.
And it is this work that will form basis of development of the new dressing being developed by the Wound pHase and its partners.