Author: Nicole Brown
September 15 – 10 min read
What’s new, what’s next, and what it means for our business.
Published monthly, the OBX Innovation Briefing is published by the OBX team as a way of highlighting the latest developments and innovations within the global cannabinoid industry. Each curated volume features insights and commentary on industry and category trends, regulatory updates, key initiatives, and upcoming events.
Industry & Brand News
NPA: Setting Safety Limit on CBD Key Part of Regulatory Process
- NPA president and CEO Daniel Fabricant, PhD, argues that the FDA does not need new authorities to regulate the CBD market and that determining a safe daily intake level for the substance should be an integral part of that process.
- Distribution for CBD products in the alcoholic beverage channel continues to expand, with Breakthru Beverage Group entering the CBD and Relaxation beverage space through a partnership with Recess. With the addition of Breakthru alongside Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and Republic National Distributing Company, all three of the top spirits and wine wholesalers in the U.S. are now active in CBD.
Making the First Major CBD Campaign for the UK Market
- As it launches the first major TV push of any CBD brand, Cannaray Limited is hoping to cement itself as the UK’s leading provider of the supplement while growing the entire category. The campaign stars British television presenter Claudia Winkleman and explores the claim of a radical and revolutionary approach to health and wellness.
- Cronos Group, Inc., an innovative global cannabinoid company, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, announced the achievement of the first target productivity milestone in their partnership to produce eight cultured cannabinoids.
- Using Ginkgo’s platform for organism design and development, Cronos Group has successfully achieved the productivity target for cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), which will support the Cronos Group’s planned CBG product launch this fall.
Trend Pieces & Editorial
- Personal care giant Colgate-Palmolive is shifting away from traditional line extensions, taking a design-led innovation approach that considers user experience and trends from start-to-finish, with teams focused on opportunities in active oral care, the skin microbiome and sustainability, says its chief technology officer.
What Evolution Can Teach Us About Innovation
- Valuable insights from Harvard Business Review on how breakthroughs in innovation tend to emerge from a relatively well-defined process called emergent discovery, a structured and disciplined process of intellectual leaps, iterative search and experimentation, and selection.
- The notion that breakthrough innovation is a random, chaotic process largely dependent on the visionary powers of gifted geniuses makes many organizations hesitant to embrace it as a core element of strategy. But there is nothing mysterious or magic about the process. Emergent discovery is a repeatable process that can be learned.
Cannabis Researchers Seek to Unlock the Healing Power of Pot
- The Wall Street Journal shares how cannabis researchers, including Dr. Malik Burnett, Dr. Jeff Chen, and Jason Poulus, see how the rise of biosynthesis will allow for the development of a breadth of potentially therapeutic compounds, improve upon the dearth of existing research on those compounds, and solve the difficulty and expense of producing the compounds through either chemical synthesis or conventional plant breeding.
- “I’m still a believer that the whole plant is more therapeutically beneficial than any one cannabinoid by itself,” says Dr. Malik Burnett, an addiction medicine physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who has experience in cannabis business and policy. “The concept of using biosynthesis to increase production of lesser cannabinoids is not a scientific breakthrough, but there is a significant amount of potential to create products that can be marketed, and can convince people that they need to use them.”
To Create Fans, Give Cannabis Branding a ‘Soul’
- Soul cannot be commissioned, bought, or added like an ingredient. It’s about the humans behind the brand and how tangible their personalities are — you can feel their spirit in the copy, the photography, the merchandise, the in-store presence and, most importantly, how consumers connect and identify with the brand.
- In this piece, meet the founders of Dad Grass, Cann, Sonder and Old Pal, and see how the personalities beneath the brands are the unseen, unrepeatable mystique that makes them stand out from the imitators all of them have spurred.
- From supplement brands like Grummies to cannabinoid-enabled brands like Wana Brands, gummies have come a long way from the candy aisle, illustrating a shift away from doctors’ advice and toward individual choice.
- Rachel del Valle shares with Eater how “in the vast world of wellness, gummies are familiar. They’re an easy sell that can be used to sell anything. A blend of consistency, novelty, and small wins, in the form of products that can be bought again and again. They make our obsession with our bodies and ourselves seem less like a struggle, and more like a game. Gummies aren’t always controlled substances, but they make you feel in control.”
Category Trends: Beverage, Beauty, Sleep, Hair Regrowth
Growth Trends In CBD Beverages Driven By Demanding, “Conscious” Consumers
- A new market research report finds that consumers of CBD beverages care far more about issues such as sustainability than most adults, with 41% of CBD drinkers reporting a preference for sustainable brands compared to 21% of the general U.S. population aged 21 and over. Similarly, 40% of CBD beverage drinkers have a better opinion of socially conscious brands, while only 18% of the general population report the same. The report draws from a recent survey of over 35,000 U.S. adults of which over 4,000 are current CBD users, including over 1,200 consumers of non-alcoholic (NA) CBD drinks.
- The findings also show more CBD consumers are turning to CBD drinks. An earlier study conducted by High Yield Insights, a cannabis consumer insights firm, found in Spring 2019 that 17% of CBD users drink beverages infused with CBD. The data shows 29% of CBD consumers now drink CBD beverages with some frequency in the latest study.
- Among other results, the latest report found CBD drinks users are younger (62% being Gen Z or Millennials), affluent (33% having household income over $100,000), with most (60%) having just adopted CBD since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
- “There’s no doubt that CBD beverages bring a new dynamism to the thriving wellness products market. But this is no longer just about functional ingredients and nutritional content; instead, shoppers are showing a clear preference for products that align with the principles of conscious consumerism,” said Alexandra Curley, Senior Consultant of High Yield Insights. “The drinks brands that demonstrate thoughtfulness through packaging, production, and distribution are winning the hearts of consumers and putting people and the planet before profit.”
CBD Beauty and Cosmetics Sales Expected to Double in 2021
- According to analytics firm NielsenIQ, beauty and cosmetics products, including face lotions, serums, and skin nourishment/replenishment products accounted for about 18% of all hemp-CBD product sales in 2020, bringing in roughly $340 million in sales.
- Nielsen predicts the category, which does not include pharmaceutical and marijuana-derived CBD products, will continue growing market share in the coming years and will eventually account for 20% of total CBD sales for 2021. The boost will be driven by more products coming to market this year in major retail chains as more stores follow Sephora, Ulta and others in the CBD-infused beauty categories.
Sleeper Hit: How CBN Sales Became A Surprise Hit In Marijuana Retail
- CBN has officially earned its position as the sleeping giant of the cannabinoid industry — and demand is climbing. “Sales of products containing CBN – almost entirely edibles, at this point – totaled more than $65 million in the past four quarters for adult-use retailers in California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon. There were only seven CBN products in those combined states a year ago, but that number grew to 55 in the second quarter of 2021, up 20% from the first three months of the year.”
- Recruitment is underway for a new study investigating the impact of topically applied varin (THCV & CBDV) and cannabidiol (CBD) rich hemp oil on stimulating hair growth and male pattern baldness.
Upcoming Events
- iCDP Summit (9/21 – 9/23, Boston)
- Cannabinoid Base Camp: The Processing and Manufacturing Foundation Supporting the Climb to Breakthrough Research, Dave Neundorfer, OBX CEO
- NLS Food Innovation Summit, (9/22-9/25, Palm Springs, CA )
- Cannabis Product Development in Food and Beverage, Andrea Baillo, OBX VP of Research and Production Innovation
- White Label World Expo NYC (9/30 – 10/1, NYC)
- Make the Leap, Take the Lead: Innovation-Led Cannabinoid Product Development Trends and Strategies, Nicole Brown, OBX Chief Innovation Officer
Got Innovation? If you see an interesting new brand, trend or other innovative idea, please feel free to share directly to info@openbookextracts. All ideas are welcome!
Author: Nicole Brown
September 15 – 10 min read
What’s new, what’s next, and what it means for our business.
Published monthly, the OBX Innovation Briefing is published by the OBX team as a way of highlighting the latest developments and innovations within the global cannabinoid industry. Each curated volume features insights and commentary on industry and category trends, regulatory updates, key initiatives, and upcoming events.
Industry & Brand News
NPA: Setting Safety Limit on CBD Key Part of Regulatory Process
- NPA president and CEO Daniel Fabricant, PhD, argues that the FDA does not need new authorities to regulate the CBD market and that determining a safe daily intake level for the substance should be an integral part of that process.
- Distribution for CBD products in the alcoholic beverage channel continues to expand, with Breakthru Beverage Group entering the CBD and Relaxation beverage space through a partnership with Recess. With the addition of Breakthru alongside Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and Republic National Distributing Company, all three of the top spirits and wine wholesalers in the U.S. are now active in CBD.
Making the First Major CBD Campaign for the UK Market
- As it launches the first major TV push of any CBD brand, Cannaray Limited is hoping to cement itself as the UK’s leading provider of the supplement while growing the entire category. The campaign stars British television presenter Claudia Winkleman and explores the claim of a radical and revolutionary approach to health and wellness.
- Cronos Group, Inc., an innovative global cannabinoid company, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, announced the achievement of the first target productivity milestone in their partnership to produce eight cultured cannabinoids.
- Using Ginkgo’s platform for organism design and development, Cronos Group has successfully achieved the productivity target for cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), which will support the Cronos Group’s planned CBG product launch this fall.
Trend Pieces & Editorial
- Personal care giant Colgate-Palmolive is shifting away from traditional line extensions, taking a design-led innovation approach that considers user experience and trends from start-to-finish, with teams focused on opportunities in active oral care, the skin microbiome and sustainability, says its chief technology officer.
What Evolution Can Teach Us About Innovation
- Valuable insights from Harvard Business Review on how breakthroughs in innovation tend to emerge from a relatively well-defined process called emergent discovery, a structured and disciplined process of intellectual leaps, iterative search and experimentation, and selection.
- The notion that breakthrough innovation is a random, chaotic process largely dependent on the visionary powers of gifted geniuses makes many organizations hesitant to embrace it as a core element of strategy. But there is nothing mysterious or magic about the process. Emergent discovery is a repeatable process that can be learned.
Cannabis Researchers Seek to Unlock the Healing Power of Pot
- The Wall Street Journal shares how cannabis researchers, including Dr. Malik Burnett, Dr. Jeff Chen, and Jason Poulus, see how the rise of biosynthesis will allow for the development of a breadth of potentially therapeutic compounds, improve upon the dearth of existing research on those compounds, and solve the difficulty and expense of producing the compounds through either chemical synthesis or conventional plant breeding.
- “I’m still a believer that the whole plant is more therapeutically beneficial than any one cannabinoid by itself,” says Dr. Malik Burnett, an addiction medicine physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who has experience in cannabis business and policy. “The concept of using biosynthesis to increase production of lesser cannabinoids is not a scientific breakthrough, but there is a significant amount of potential to create products that can be marketed, and can convince people that they need to use them.”
To Create Fans, Give Cannabis Branding a ‘Soul’
- Soul cannot be commissioned, bought, or added like an ingredient. It’s about the humans behind the brand and how tangible their personalities are — you can feel their spirit in the copy, the photography, the merchandise, the in-store presence and, most importantly, how consumers connect and identify with the brand.
- In this piece, meet the founders of Dad Grass, Cann, Sonder and Old Pal, and see how the personalities beneath the brands are the unseen, unrepeatable mystique that makes them stand out from the imitators all of them have spurred.
- From supplement brands like Grummies to cannabinoid-enabled brands like Wana Brands, gummies have come a long way from the candy aisle, illustrating a shift away from doctors’ advice and toward individual choice.
- Rachel del Valle shares with Eater how “in the vast world of wellness, gummies are familiar. They’re an easy sell that can be used to sell anything. A blend of consistency, novelty, and small wins, in the form of products that can be bought again and again. They make our obsession with our bodies and ourselves seem less like a struggle, and more like a game. Gummies aren’t always controlled substances, but they make you feel in control.”
Category Trends: Beverage, Beauty, Sleep, Hair Regrowth
Growth Trends In CBD Beverages Driven By Demanding, “Conscious” Consumers
- A new market research report finds that consumers of CBD beverages care far more about issues such as sustainability than most adults, with 41% of CBD drinkers reporting a preference for sustainable brands compared to 21% of the general U.S. population aged 21 and over. Similarly, 40% of CBD beverage drinkers have a better opinion of socially conscious brands, while only 18% of the general population report the same. The report draws from a recent survey of over 35,000 U.S. adults of which over 4,000 are current CBD users, including over 1,200 consumers of non-alcoholic (NA) CBD drinks.
- The findings also show more CBD consumers are turning to CBD drinks. An earlier study conducted by High Yield Insights, a cannabis consumer insights firm, found in Spring 2019 that 17% of CBD users drink beverages infused with CBD. The data shows 29% of CBD consumers now drink CBD beverages with some frequency in the latest study.
- Among other results, the latest report found CBD drinks users are younger (62% being Gen Z or Millennials), affluent (33% having household income over $100,000), with most (60%) having just adopted CBD since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
- “There’s no doubt that CBD beverages bring a new dynamism to the thriving wellness products market. But this is no longer just about functional ingredients and nutritional content; instead, shoppers are showing a clear preference for products that align with the principles of conscious consumerism,” said Alexandra Curley, Senior Consultant of High Yield Insights. “The drinks brands that demonstrate thoughtfulness through packaging, production, and distribution are winning the hearts of consumers and putting people and the planet before profit.”
CBD Beauty and Cosmetics Sales Expected to Double in 2021
- According to analytics firm NielsenIQ, beauty and cosmetics products, including face lotions, serums, and skin nourishment/replenishment products accounted for about 18% of all hemp-CBD product sales in 2020, bringing in roughly $340 million in sales.
- Nielsen predicts the category, which does not include pharmaceutical and marijuana-derived CBD products, will continue growing market share in the coming years and will eventually account for 20% of total CBD sales for 2021. The boost will be driven by more products coming to market this year in major retail chains as more stores follow Sephora, Ulta and others in the CBD-infused beauty categories.
Sleeper Hit: How CBN Sales Became A Surprise Hit In Marijuana Retail
- CBN has officially earned its position as the sleeping giant of the cannabinoid industry — and demand is climbing. “Sales of products containing CBN – almost entirely edibles, at this point – totaled more than $65 million in the past four quarters for adult-use retailers in California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon. There were only seven CBN products in those combined states a year ago, but that number grew to 55 in the second quarter of 2021, up 20% from the first three months of the year.”
- Recruitment is underway for a new study investigating the impact of topically applied varin (THCV & CBDV) and cannabidiol (CBD) rich hemp oil on stimulating hair growth and male pattern baldness.
Upcoming Events
- iCDP Summit (9/21 – 9/23, Boston)
- Cannabinoid Base Camp: The Processing and Manufacturing Foundation Supporting the Climb to Breakthrough Research, Dave Neundorfer, OBX CEO
- NLS Food Innovation Summit, (9/22-9/25, Palm Springs, CA )
- Cannabis Product Development in Food and Beverage, Andrea Baillo, OBX VP of Research and Production Innovation
- White Label World Expo NYC (9/30 – 10/1, NYC)
- Make the Leap, Take the Lead: Innovation-Led Cannabinoid Product Development Trends and Strategies, Nicole Brown, OBX Chief Innovation Officer
Got Innovation? If you see an interesting new brand, trend or other innovative idea, please feel free to share directly to info@openbookextracts. All ideas are welcome!
