# What Does Cannabinoid R&D Actually Look Like Right Now? > AI written. This is a column post generated from The Dime's episode catalogue, not a transcript and not written by the hosts. Cannabinoid R&D now splits into two tracks: FDA botanical drug development requiring pharmaceutical-grade rigor, and biosynthesis or chemical synthesis of minor cannabinoids for consistency and cost. Both are real businesses, not hype, but both are slower and harder than the plant made them look. - Author: Isaac Burner, AI analyst for The Dime (AI written, reviewed before publishing) - Published: 2026-10-01 - Canonical: https://www.dimepodcast.com/answers/what-cannabinoid-research-and-development-actually-looks-like - Column: https://www.dimepodcast.com/answers - Topics: [Medical & Research](https://www.dimepodcast.com/topics/medical-and-research), [Cultivation & Extraction](https://www.dimepodcast.com/topics/cultivation-and-extraction), [Data & Technology](https://www.dimepodcast.com/topics/data-and-technology) ## Sources Episodes of The Dime Podcast this answer is drawn from. - [Cannabis Was Medicine. Now the Proof Is Catching Up, ft. Joel Stanley and Dr. Marcel Bonn-Miller](https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/cannabis-was-medicine-now-the-proof-is-catching-up-ft-joel-stanley-and-dr-marcel-bonn-miller) with Joel Stanley and Dr. Marcel Bonn-Miller Markdown: https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/cannabis-was-medicine-now-the-proof-is-catching-up-ft-joel-stanley-and-dr-marcel-bonn-miller.md - [How Minor Cannabinoids are Made: Synthetic vs Biosynthetic ft. Shane Johnson](https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/how-minor-cannabinoids-are-made-synthetic-vs-biosynthetic-ft-shane-johnson) with Shane Johnson Markdown: https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/how-minor-cannabinoids-are-made-synthetic-vs-biosynthetic-ft-shane-johnson.md - [Kanha Edibles on a Thai Beach: Global Strategy & Personalized Cannabinoid Therapy with Cameron Clarke](https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/kanha-edibles-on-a-thai-beach-global-strategy-personalized-cannabinoid-therapy-with-cameron-clarke) with Cameron Clarke Markdown: https://www.dimepodcast.com/episodes/kanha-edibles-on-a-thai-beach-global-strategy-personalized-cannabinoid-therapy-with-cameron-clarke.md ## Answer Cannabis R&D stopped being one thing. It split into two distinct businesses, and conflating them is a mistake. ## Botanical Drug Development Means Pharma Rules, Not Plant Rules Joel Stanley, founding CEO of Charlotte's Web and now founder of Ozna Biosciences, and Dr. Marcel Bonn-Miller laid out what changed in 2016: the FDA created a botanical drug guidance that finally gave whole-plant, multi-compound cannabis a legitimate path to approval, with the same rigor applied to drugs from Pfizer or Eli Lilly. That rigor is brutal. Ozna's lead candidate, AJA-001, targets irritability and aggression in autism spectrum disorder, and Stanley says it contains over 6,000 compounds that each have to be identified and kept within spec batch after batch. Charlotte's Web spent roughly a decade standardizing genetics, cultivation, and extraction just to give Ozna reproducible raw material to start from. British American Tobacco has put $15 million into the program through a partnership called Deloria to fund it through Phase 2. That's the scale of capital and time this track requires, as discussed in [Cannabis Was Medicine. Now the Proof Is Catching Up](/episodes/cannabis-was-medicine-now-the-proof-is-catching-up-ft-joel-stanley-and-dr-marcel-bonn-miller). Bonn-Miller, who has worked in cannabinoid research for about 23 years, says the field has genuinely shifted. Funding used to come almost entirely from agencies studying harm. Now there are multiple academic journals, accredited university programs, and complementary medicine divisions funding therapeutic work, including a growing focus on cannabinoids in patients over 65. AI and supercomputing now help researchers process the mass spectrometry data needed to characterize novel compounds faster. ## Minor Cannabinoid Manufacturing Runs On Synthesis, Not Extraction Shane Johnson, SVP and GM of BayMedica, a subsidiary of InMed Pharmaceuticals, described the second track in [How Minor Cannabinoids are Made](/episodes/how-minor-cannabinoids-are-made-synthetic-vs-biosynthetic-ft-shane-johnson). Rare cannabinoids like THCV and CBC aren't extracted from plants in practical volumes, they're made through engineered yeast (biosynthesis) or chemical synthesis. Johnson says a compound is a compound regardless of method, as long as chirality, stereochemistry, and impurity profiles are controlled. He points out that synthesis already underlies aspirin, vitamins, and the caffeine in energy drinks, so the stigma around the word doesn't hold up technically. This matters for cost. Johnson says CBD isolate pricing fell from around $60,000 per kilogram to around $300 per kilogram, and real adoption of any cannabinoid tends to require pricing below roughly $3,000 to $5,000 per kilogram. Cameron Clarke of Kanha, who has worked with minor cannabinoids including CBN, THCV, CBG, and CBC for about eight years, said in [Kanha Edibles on a Thai Beach](/episodes/kanha-edibles-on-a-thai-beach-global-strategy-personalized-cannabinoid-therapy-with-cameron-clarke) that anecdotal claims, like CBN for sleep, took years to get real scientific confirmation. ## Personalized Cannabinoid Medicine Is Not Close Kanha piloted DNA-based tinctures with EndoCanna Health but shelved the project because retail shelf space for niche personalized products cost too much. Johnson puts true personalized cannabinoid medicine, built on isolating pure cannabinoids and studying specific ratios against genetics, at a decade or more away. For operators, the lesson is to pick a lane. If you're chasing an FDA botanical drug, expect pharma-grade capital and timelines. If you're formulating with minor cannabinoids, your edge is sourcing cost and consistency, not a personalized medicine story that isn't commercially ready yet. ## Related questions ### Is a synthesized cannabinoid as safe as one extracted from the plant? Shane Johnson of BayMedica says a compound is a compound regardless of production method, as long as chirality, stereochemistry, and impurity profiles are controlled, and notes everyday products like aspirin and vitamins already rely on synthesis. ### Why hasn't cannabinoid science made it into medical schools? Shane Johnson attributes this to cannabis's Schedule I status dating back to the War on Drugs, which made rigorous clinical research difficult domestically and internationally and stalled the evidence base medical curricula require. ### What is AJA-001? AJA-001 is Ozna Biosciences' lead botanical drug candidate, a full-spectrum CBD/THC formulation derived from Charlotte's Web genetics, being developed through the FDA to treat irritability and aggression in autism spectrum disorder, according to Joel Stanley. ### How far off is personalized, DNA-based cannabinoid medicine? Shane Johnson estimates it is likely a decade or more away, since it requires isolating pure cannabinoids and studying specific ratio combinations against genetic data at a scale the field hasn't reached yet. --- Markdown variant of any episode, guest, newsletter, answer or topic page on this site: add .md to its URL. Site index: https://www.dimepodcast.com/llms.txt. Complete catalogue: https://www.dimepodcast.com/llms-full.txt