eXoZymes Secures $2 Million NIH Grant to Advance Cannabinoid Analogs for Drug Discovery
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eXoZymes received a $2.03 million Phase IIB SBIR grant from the NIH's NIGMS to develop rare cannabinoid production and engineered cannabinoid analogs (search) for pharmaceutical evaluation.
The two-year program, beginning July 1, 2026, will fund expression system development, analog expansion, and preclinical receptor-binding assays of the company's cannabinoid library.
The grant brings eXoZymes' total non-dilutive funding to approximately $19.7 million and establishes cannabinoid analogs (search) as the second biosolution in its pipeline after NCT.
eXoZymes Inc. (search) (NASDAQ:EXOZ), a pioneer of AI-enhanced enzymes for scalable biomanufacturing, announced on June 24, 2026 that it has received a Notice of Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant totaling $2,028,518. The NIH-funded work is expected to begin on July 1, 2026, and will support the company's program to manufacture rare cannabinoids and engineer cannabinoid analogs (search) — modified versions of cannabinoids designed for pharmaceutical evaluation.
The award brings total non-dilutive funding awarded to eXoZymes and its predecessor programs to $19.7 million and establishes cannabinoid analogs (search) as the second biosolution in the company's pipeline after NCT, reinforcing its position in the rapidly expanding minor cannabinoids market.
Addressing a Critical Supply Bottleneck in Cannabinoid Drug Discovery
Rare and minor cannabinoids are drawing significant commercial attention, with the U.S. minor cannabinoids market forecasted to grow from approximately $11.5 billion in 2023 to $33.3 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15%. This growth is attributed to an expanding body of research demonstrating that the endocannabinoid system (search) in humans encompasses an unusually broad range of receptors, pointing to wide-ranging potential for clinical benefit.
However, most rare cannabinoids with therapeutic potential occur in plants only in trace amounts, and seldom at the purity needed for meaningful commercialization. eXoZymes' cell-free platform is designed to produce these molecules outside living cells reliably, abundantly, and at high purity, then use them as starting points for new analogs with improved drug-like properties.
"The hardest part of cannabinoid drug discovery has always been a supply and purity problem — the most interesting molecules are the ones nature makes the least of. Our platform is built to change that," said Michael Heltzen, CEO of eXoZymes. "Once we can reliably produce the naturally occurring cannabinoids, we can engineer new-to-nature analogs around them that are more potent and better suited to pharmaceutical drug development than what is available today."
Three Primary Objectives Under the Grant
The grant, titled "SimplePath IIB: Pre-clinical Development of Cannabinoid Analogs (search)," is funded through NIGMS and includes $1,034,289 for the initial budget period and $994,229 for the second year, subject to continued progress and funding availability. Under the awarded program, eXoZymes will pursue three primary objectives: advanced development of expression systems for cannabinoid cyclase enzymes; strategic expansion of the range of analogs the company can produce; and preclinical evaluation of the company's existing cannabinoid library using established biological targets through receptor-binding assays, supported by in-house scale capability.
Dr. Tyler Korman, PhD, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of eXoZymes, will serve as Principal Investigator on the award. The program includes a sub-award to the laboratory of Dr. Vikram Shende at Occidental College.
"As indicated by the high growth rate of the rare cannabinoids market, we are witnessing a transition from an industry built around cultivating and extracting a handful of naturally abundant cannabinoids to one powered by biotechnology and molecular design," said Korman. "Rare cannabinoids show great promise, but researchers have been severely limited by supply. Our goal is to develop proprietary enzyme-based manufacturing technologies designed to produce rare and novel plant-derived cannabinoids at pharmaceutical grade."
Building a Repeatable Development Engine
Heltzen emphasized the strategic significance of the award for the company's partnering strategy: "After the profound progress we have made with NCT, this award demonstrates how our patented cell-free approach now adds a second biosolution to our pipeline and creates new opportunities for pharmaceutical partners. This is a key milestone that demonstrates our repeatable development engine of future licensing and partnering opportunities — a key feature in creating additional proprietary molecules without diluting shareholders."
The company's cell-free biomanufacturing platform uses AI-enhanced enzymes — called exozymes — to produce valuable natural products and new analogs outside living cells, designed to replace inefficient extraction and petrochemical processes with a scalable approach for high-value molecules across nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets.