What if the secret to vibrant, youthful skin were cannabis? Before you get too worked up, not smoking it, but using the cannabidiol (CBD), which does not produce a high, in a cream. Health and wellness firm and medical marijuana provider Bod Australia is looking into incorporating CBD and anti-ageing proteins found in skin cells into creams after a three-year study conducted with University of Technology Sydney showed antioxidant properties.
The results of this three-year collaboration provide us a fantastic commercial opportunity in both the anti-ageing and cannabis markets, which are both rapidly growing and ever changing,” Bod CEO Jo Patterson told Stockhead. “The company is in the position to develop a suite of products that utilise these novel proteins in combination with specific CBD extracts and other cannabis compounds, allowing for increased optionality over its broader product suite. This will position Bod with an IP protected and patentable product suite building greater value for the total business.”
Bod’s stock went up 21 per cent after the announcement. The medical cannabis market in Australia is indeed growing, and hemp is a regular feature in health drinks, whilst CBD has an established presence in pain relief ointments. Still, regulatory agencies can be slower to act than the pace of development.
“We especially we think that the rules need to be relaxed a lot more around the non-psychoactive cannabinoids because they have definitely proved to have fewer side effects,” Bod’s chief science officer Adele Hosseini told Business Insider Australia. “And it can benefit a wide group of patients and people in general.”
Bod is already developing a hempseed and manuka honey skincare cream in addition to its numerous herbal supplements, and a CBD-infused skin cream could prove quite popular in the large anti-ageing space.
