Nalu Bio has Successfully Synthesized Pure, High-quality CBD for Scale and Closed Its Seed Financing Round

Learning from Nature. Designing through chemistry.

News provided by

Jan 07, 2021, 08:53 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nalu Bio, Inc. today announced the successful organic synthesis of CBD (cannabidiol) utilizing its proprietary technology platform, closure of its seed financing, and the successful recruitment of a world-class team of life science and consumer packaged goods professionals to develop and scale the company's innovative technology. Nalu Bio's vision for the organic synthesis and cost-effective mass production of CBD mimics the history of aspirin - the therapeutic value of aspirin for pain relief was uncovered, is now mass-produced in the lab, and has become the most commonly used drug in the world.

Nalu Bio, co-founded by Caitlyn Krebs (CEO), Phyllis Whiteley, and Randall Ussery, has made tremendous progress in just over a year in developing a proprietary organic synthesis platform that enables lab-based production of cannabinoids at scale. Because Nalu Bio's platform does not use plant-based material, it eliminates the biological variability, unwanted contaminants, and high-capital investment costs inherent in complex hemp extraction and biosynthesis. Nalu Bio's process is capable of delivering consistent, scalable, and cost-effective CBD with each and every batch. With these advantages, Nalu Bio will also be able to establish a reliable pipeline beyond CBD of safer, purer and consistently performing ingredients for the cognitive wellness and therapeutics markets. This breakthrough will enable the clinical studies and data needed to unleash the full therapeutic potential of CBD and related active ingredients.

Nalu Bio's seed financing was led by L37 Ventures, and included participation from Golden Seeds, XFactor Ventures, and Bonaventure Equity. This round of seed financing will be used to further the development of the organic synthesis platform, with a focus on perfecting the synthesis of nature-sourced cannabinoids, scaling the platform, and validating the purity, quality and consistency of the CBD output.

In her role as CEO, Caitlyn Krebs is excited about the company's progress. "We've built a world-class team to deliver high-quality CBD-based ingredients that consumers and patients can trust, and I am confident that we can not only keep pace with current market growth, but we will have the scalability to capitalize on expanding market potential."

The Nalu Bio team will propel the delivery of this new category of cannabinoids and cognitive wellness ingredients to market. Matthew Roberts, PhD, joins Nalu Bio from the Health & Happiness Group as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He brings 25+ years of CTO and Chief Scientific Officer experience in global consumer packaged goods companies across food, nutrition, operations, process scale-up, clinical trials, regulatory and quality control. Matthew has worked at Nestle, Abbott Nutrition, Pharmavite - a Nature's Bounty Company, and Chromadex, and he will play an integral role to develop and scale Nalu Bio's proprietary platform.

"In my career, I've led teams who have delivered many specialty ingredients and new products for global brands in the categories of cognitive health, immune protection, the prevention of muscle wasting, and the improvement of cellular health in aging. I see Nalu Bio's cannabinoid approach as a uniquely valuable opportunity to provide consumers with trustworthy and effective CBD-based products that maintain cognitive wellness, and with more research, may one day be therapeutically useful for opioid addiction," says Matthew Roberts, CTO at Nalu Bio.

Alex Dorenbaum, MD, has also joined the team as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to enable the clinical studies and generate the data needed to support the therapeutic efficacy of CBD. He brings 25+ years of experience in healthcare as both a practicing physician and a drug development expert. Alex has held leading roles at Genentech, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Chiron, Reneo Pharmaceuticals, Allakos, and Lumena Pharmaceuticals. He has played a key role in the development of multiple drugs in the areas of allergy and HIV/AIDS, and for the treatment of pulmonary, immunological, cardiovascular, metabolic, and pediatric diseases. Alex is also a Clinical Professor at Stanford School of Medicine, where he sees patients weekly.

"Because CBD has very low affinity for the CB1 receptor, it lacks undesirable euphoric side effects, which is a critical advantage," says Alex Dorenbaum, CMO of Nalu Bio. "As a physician, I recognize and am excited about the broad therapeutic potential of CBD. To fully achieve that potential, we urgently need a trustworthy, science-backed CBD product on the market. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about joining forces with Nalu Bio - to help advance the development of a pure, consistent, medical-grade CBD to advance the treatment of multiple diseases."

About Nalu Bio
At Nalu Bio, our mission is to learn from nature, and deliver through chemistry. Nalu Bio is creating a new category of cannabinoids and cognitive wellness ingredients which will offer great therapeutic promise for the treatment of pain, opioid addiction, and mental health issues. Our proprietary organic synthesis platform utilizes readily available materials and reliable manufacturing technology, eliminating the costly inefficiencies and high capital investment costs of hemp extraction and biosynthesis. We are confident that Nalu Bio's proprietary organic synthesis platform will set a new industry standard for purity, consistency, and quality, because it removes the risk of contamination from pesticides, heavy metals, and THC. Nalu Bio's platform has the ability to keep pace with anticipated market expansions, and will reliably deliver high quality and widely-accessible cannabinoids to global retail and pharmaceutical markets, now and in the future.

About L37
L37 is a new generation, hybrid venture capital and private equity company. We invest in visionary founders and companies that are transforming industries and solving ubiquitous problems. We work alongside founding teams, leveraging frameworks for scale and a network of trusted relationships with customers, capital, and talent to design new categories and engineer market-first, globally minded companies.

To learn more about our investors please go to:
L37 www.L37.vc
Golden Seeds www.goldenseeds.com
XFactor Ventures www.xfactor.ventures
Bonaventure Equity www.bvequity.com

SOURCE Nalu Bio, Inc.