Peshkovsky received his BA in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and PhD in Physical Chemistry from Columbia University. His professional experience includes over 25 years as a researcher, entrepreneur, product developer, and scientific director, mainly focusing on instrumentation design and process development for the medical physics, pharmaceutical and cannabis industries. Peshkovsky is the author of over 40 scientific papers, utility patents, conference presentations, and books.

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Health E-Insights: Will hemp and cannabis product innovation continue to fuel sales in 2021? What trends do you envision?
 
Peshkovsky: The innovation in hemp and cannabis product development has been one of the most exciting aspects of the industry. Specifically, water-compatible nanoemulsions that can be transformed into multiple finished products are at the core of bringing THC/CBD products to market in a manner that is convenient and cost-effective, yet high-quality. Such products manifest themselves in terms of accelerated onset time, high bioavailability, consistent effect, as well as precise and reproducible therapeutic dosing. Scalable high-amplitude ultrasonic technology and formulations that enable nanoemulsions with cannabinoid-containing droplets in the 25-nanometer size range are what makes such innovations possible. With Industrial Sonomechanics’ ultrasonic liquid processors and NanoStabilizer formulations, manufacturers are able to listen to their customers and produce high-quality finished products that meet their needs.  
 
Health E-Insights: CBD awareness has skyrocketed. Has COVID played a role?
 
Peshkovsky: COVID has certainly made the general public more aware of how they treat their lungs. As a whole generation of smokers and inhalers look for solutions to be healthier, they start to alter the way they consume cannabis-related products. Many people seek the fortifying effects of CBD and explore new ways to consume it that do not involve their lungs. For example, we are currently seeing a quickly growing demand for water-soluble CBD powders, which allow for diverse applications and finished products. Such powders can, for example, be added to beverages directly, mixed with instant coffee, placed into tea bags, compressed into pills that instantly disintegrate and dissolve in the saliva in the mouth, or formulated as fizzing effervescent tablets that rapidly dissolve in hot or cold drinks. 
 
Health E-Insights: How might pending government legislation impact your company?
 
Peshkovsky: ISM is singularly focused on bringing its equipment and formulations to market in order to ensure consistency and quality of water-compatible products. Our background is firmly grounded in the pharmaceutical industry, where federal oversight for quality and consistency is the general rule. We expect to see an increasing amount of similar oversight applied to the cannabis industry as legalization progresses. Our equipment is designed to be able to transfer processes quickly and effectively from a lab setting to high-volume production while maintaining the highest quality of results. This characteristic enables us to respond quickly to whatever legislation changes may develop or whatever new oversight may be created.  
 
Health E-Insights: Will CBD, hemp and cannabis become a greater part of the health and wellness (nutraceutical) community?
 
Peshkovsky: We see great opportunities in the nutraceutical industry, especially with increased research related to novel CBD and THC products. We are finally starting to better understand how pharmacokinetic profiles of cannabinoids depend on the different ways they can be formulated and administered. Information gleaned from research combined with today’s product development technology that permits extremely small nanoemulsion droplet sizes provides a future with tremendous benefits for the nutraceutical community. 
 
Health E-Insights: What gaps are there in the overall product marketplace?
 
Peshkovsky: There is still a gap in terms of the quality of information available to the industry as a whole. How do consumers differentiate between products and their given characteristics? How easily can the consumer interpret the information? How can product claims be validated? If someone says a product is going to make you feel a certain way and the product fails to deliver, then you have lost an advocate. Research is needed to validate product claims and advance the market.
 
Health E-Insights: How much has your Barbell Horn Ultrasonic Technology added to production values?
 
Peshkovsky: We have had hundreds of customers come to us with nanoemulsions they have produced in a beaker. When they are ready to increase the volume and produce at a larger scale, however, they run into problems. The single largest advantage of our Barbell Horn Ultrasonic Technology is that it enables the cost-effective production of large volumes of product while retaining the high-quality characteristics developed in the lab. For example, in combination with our NanoStabilizer formulations, this technology allows for large-scale production of liquid or powdered nanoemulsions with extremely small droplet sizes, shortening the incorporated bioactives’ onset of action, increasing their bioavailability and making them water-compatible and convenient to consume. 
 
Health E-Insights: You are a global company. Do companies in each country utilize your technology in a similar manner?   
 
Peshkovsky: Our technology is in use across the globe, and we have seen a recent uptick in interest in places like Australia, Colombia, Argentina, South Africa, and many countries in Europe. Each country is at a different stage of production/product sophistication as well as legal environment. ISM equipment is utilized for many applications beyond nanoemulsion creation. For example, on a worldwide basis, it is used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, oil and  gas, alternative fuel, candle wax, chemical processing, and food/beverage industries. A common set of requirements is that customers in almost every region of the world are looking for high-value equipment that is compact and easy to set up, integrate, and operate while providing the flexibility to run different types of processes.  
  
Health E-Insights: Where will the most significant growth occur in your company over the next 12-24 months?
 
Peshkovsky: We see two major areas of growth. One is the enablement of powdered nanoemulsions. The production of high-quality powdered nanoemulsions provides a lot of flexibility to how branding companies bring products to market. The other is contract manufacturing services with ISM providing finished liquid or powdered nanoemulsions. As companies focus on branding and as consumers get more educated, predictable and consistent quality finished nanoemulsions will be in increasingly high demand.  
 
Health E-Insights: Which is most important to your organization, mission, core values or vision?
 
Peshkovsky: We see our mission, core values and vision as interconnected. Our vision is of a world where our technology enables companies and employees to prosper, promotes consumer safety and health, and is a catalyst for further innovation beyond our company’s four walls. At our core, we are a scientific business, and our mission is applied discovery. We will always maintain focus on the rigor of and accountability to scientific standards, which will then translate to our end-user’s benefit. Our core values include quality, transparency, clear information flow and the continued pursuit of discovery. These core values apply to every product that we produce.
 
Health E-Insights: If you could wave a magic wand and make one change what might it be?
 
Peshkovsky: My wish is to be allowed to openly study THC and CBD, without restrictions and, preferably, with government support. It is challenging to discover how things function, especially when the biology of a human body is involved. I do think, however, that at this point we all share a common understanding that there are health benefits to these substances, so it is important to have the freedom and, ideally, the support to study them.

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Sheldon Baker is chief executive officer of Baker Dillon Group LLC and has created numerous nutraceutical brand marketing communications and public relations campaigns for well-known supplement and food industry companies. For Health E-Insights interview consideration or brand marketing consulting, contact him at SBaker@BakerDillon.com.