TORONTO, Oct. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beleave Inc. (“Beleave”) (CSE:BE) (OTCQX:BLEVF) is pleased to announce that it will begin a research program with Dr. Michael Rogers to develop and characterize the bioavailability of novel cannabinoid food and drug delivery systems for oral administration using lipid-based nano-systems. Dr. Rogers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Sciences at the University of Guelph, and the holder of a Canada Research Chair in Food Nanotechnology.



The goal of the program will be the development of proprietary cannabinoid food and drug delivery systems with optimized bioavailability and shelf-life properties compared to currently available cannabis products. Drug development will be geared towards the current medicinal cannabis market, while food development will be geared towards the upcoming adult recreational market.

“Development of novel cannabis formulations with optimized bioavailability will be a tremendous benefit to the medicinal cannabis market, as well as pre-emptively provide valuable technologies for the upcoming recreational market,” commented Beleave Chief Science Officer, Dr. Roger Ferreira.

Principle Investigator Dr. Rogers will be joined by a research team including Dr. Paul Spagnuolo, Associate Professor in the Department of Food Sciences at the University of Guelph, and Dr. Peter Chen, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, School of Pharmacy. The work will involve the use of the TIM-1, an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model which simulates the human stomach, duodenum, jejunum, and ileum in order to study stability and bioavailability events after oral ingestion. This will greatly accelerate the ability to assess the oral bioavailability of novel cannabinoid food and drugs, as well as drastically reducing costs associated with bioavailability studies in humans or animals.

“This unique collaboration brings together scientists from across disciplines to take a bottom-up, fundamental approach to developing novel vehicles for delivery of cannabis products, creating the best possible products for both the medicinal and recreational markets,” states Dr. Rogers.

Assessing for bioavailability can pose serious challenges, as human or animal subjects are required and plasma samples must be drawn. The TIM-1 simulated in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model was developed by TNO in the Netherlands, and is currently being used by only four laboratories in Canada. This advanced dissolution model has high correlation to in vivo testing and has been validated for use in drug delivery (See PubMed).

Novel cannabinoid formulations will be assessed for bioavailability in a quick and cost-effective manner without the need for ethical approval as in when dealing with human or animal test subjects. This will allow rapid assessments of formulations and significantly increase the rate of innovation and discovery into enhancing oral bioavailability of cannabinoids. This research coupling novel cannabis food and drug delivery systems with the TIM-1 will be the first-of-its-kind.

About Beleave

Beleave Inc. is a biotech company and Beleave's wholly-owned subsidiary Beleave Kannabis Corp. (formerly First Access Medical Inc.) is a licensed producer pursuant to the ACMPR. Beleave's purpose-built facility is located near Hamilton, Ontario.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. This news release includes forward-looking statements with respect to the completion of the ACMPR licensing process, meeting the requirements of the ACMPR, and the start of production. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com.

For more information contact:

Sebastian de Kloet

Phone: 1 (905) 979 - 5173

Email: Sebastian@beleave.com