Q1 2019

18 GHP / Q1 2019 , Cannabidiol, or CBD, has grown into the new craze global inmarketplaces. After the recent passage of the U.S. FarmBill in late 2018, hemp-derived CBD products have become massive in the United States as well. CBD Based Products Continue to Grow in Stature and Demand Around the World The bill allows for the cultivation and commercial sale of hemp- based products. However, the 2018 Farm Bill strictly distinguishes hemp as the non-psychoactive component of cannabis containing less than 0.3% THC or tetrahydrocannabinol. While CBD may not provide consumers with psychoactive effects, it is linked to providing users with relaxing and therapeutic benefits. Furthermore, because of CBD’s effects, many medical companies have begun to use it as a form of treatment. In combination with the recreational market, the overall CBD market is projected to witness substantial growth moving forward. According to data compiled by Brightfield Group, the U.S. hemp CBD market is expected to reach USD 22 Billion by 2022, outpacing the rest of the cannabis market combined. Primarily, consumers are using CBD-based products such as oils, tinctures, creams, beverages, edibles, and flowers. While all the products may offer the same beneficiary effects, the products apply to different application. Consumers may be using creams in particular for muscle aches or chronic pain, while others may use beverages as a relaxation stimulant. Despite the large recreational market for CBD, the medical segment offers much more diverse applications. Consumers can also use CBD in order to treat other medical conditions such as epilepsy, seizures, Alzheimer’s, inflammation, and depression, according to WebMD. With the emergence of the CBD industry, products are beginning to diversify as consumers now have access to a wide range of choices. “What is most notable is that this market has grown almost exclusively based on word-of- mouth, with marketing heavily restricted due to the legal gray area that hemp CBD operates in,” said Bethany Gomez, Managing Director at Brightfield Group, “CBD is everywhere - it is both a trendy, new ingredient in drinks, face creams and pet treats and an answer to the prayers of so many people suffering from medical conditions ranging from epilepsy to anxiety and chronic pain. It rides the waves of so many global food and health trends, as a substitute for opioids, towards more natural health alternatives and functional ingredients.” Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: PBIO) announced last week that, “analytical testing on hemp-derived CBD oil processed via PBI’s Ultra Shear Technology™ (UST™) platform has confirmed that UST processing uniquely achieves the challenging criteria for creating highly-effective “nanoemulsions” of CBD oil in water, without loss or modification of CBD throughout the entire UST process (> 99% recovery). The ultimate goal in mixing oil-based nutritional and therapeutic products like CBD oil into water, for effective oral or topical delivery and absorption, is to reduce the size of the oil drops to such a level that they seemingly ‘vanish’ into the water (become “water soluble”). These exceedingly small, nanometer- scale droplets are so tiny that it becomes very easy for the human (or other animal) body to absorb the oil-based nutrients or drugs (like CBD) directly from the inner surface of the oil droplet. Traditional processing methods struggle mightily with this challenge, but PBI’s proprietary UST platform uses ultra-high pressure to create extreme shearing forces to make nanometer-scale droplets of fluids that become highly-stable, homogenized “nanoemulsions” of materials that normally do not mix (e.g., CBD oil and water). Dr. Vera Gross, Director of Applications Development at PBI, explained: ‘We asked an independent, university-affiliated laboratory to determine the size of oil droplets achieved in UST-processed CBD oil, using a universally-accepted sizing method called DLS. Their analytical results revealed that the UST- processed oil drops were reduced to approximately 65 nm in size, well into the 20- 200 nm range targeted for truly effective nanoemulsion delivery and absorption of nutrients and therapeutics, such as CBD (Nano- and Microscale Drug Delivery Systems, 2017).’ Dr. Gross continued: ‘It was critically important to also demonstrate that CBD from hemp-derived CBD oil was not lost or modified during UST processing. For this we enlisted the help of scientists at NutraFuels, Inc. (OTCQB: NTFU), which has an FDA-inspected, highly-qualified analytical testing laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment and well-trained chemists with years of experience in laboratory testing.’ Mr. Cooper Dodd, R&D Scientist at NTFU, said: ‘Using a powerful laboratory method called HPLC to measure the concentrations of