Saying the hemp industry needs better research into cannabinoid safety and efficacy, Colorado CBD maker Charlotte’s Web has launched a new research division and tapped a former health diagnostics executive to lead it.

Tim Orr is leading a new division called Charlotte’s Web Labs, a team of about a dozen that will expand the company’s research efforts and clinical trials on hemp-derived

phytocannabinoids

terpenes, and

flavonoids.

Orr was formerly vice president at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a laboratory diagnostics company once owned by Johnson & Johnson.

CW Labs will be located on the campus of the University at Buffalo in New York.

Charlotte’s Web trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange as CWEB.