The deal comes a few days after the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Tweewinot’s subsidiary - Full Spectrum Laboratories - a patent covering use of the approach to make cannabinoid active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Teewinot CEO Jeffrey Korentur told us the method relies on enzymes made in cultured yeast or E.coli cells.
"We have a system that uses microorganisms to produce THCA synthase and CBDA synthase. Those synthases convert a starting material into a variety of cannabinoids, cannabinoid prodrugs, and cannabinoid analogs."
He added that: "Our deal with Nemus is only exclusive regarding their proprietary prodrugs. We are able, and fully intend, to license the remainder of our full production capabilities to others interested in pure, standardized, rapidly produced cannabinoids."
Faster, cheaper
Nemus CEO, Brian Murphy said the approach allows cannabinoids to be made much faster than traditional plant-based production.
"Tweewinot will offer Nemus a strategic and competitive advantage in the cannabinoid therapeutic marketplace by enabling our proprietary THC prodrug and unique CBD derivative molecules to be manufactured in a time-efficient manner” he said.
He also predicted the licensed method will allow Nemus to reduce its manufacturing costs by 60-70% and praised the range of cannabinoids that can be produced.
“We are impressed with the versatility of the biosynthesis system in the ability to produce an array of cannabinoids, which fits plans for our library of cannabinoid pipeline molecules developed with our research and commercialization partner, the University of Mississippi."
Scale-up
Teewinot – which recently changed its name from CBC Biotechnologies – secured $7m (€6.2m) from private equity backer Tuatara Capital in March.
More recently the Florida, US-based firm started scaling up the production process in collaboration with Albany Molecular Research, Inc (AMRI), which is Nemus’ current API supplier.
Korentur told us "We expect to attain commercial scale in Q3 2016. We are currently optimizing our cannabinoid biosynthesis processes for commercial production."