For pet owners trying to ease the pain of an aging or seriously ill dog, cannabinoid products are already easy to find. CBD oils, chews and tinctures crowd retail shelves and online marketplaces, often promising calm, mobility or general wellness. What remains far more difficult to find is a cannabinoid medicine for animals that has been tested, manufactured and reviewed according to pharmaceutical standards. Splash Beverage Group, a publicly traded company on the NYSE, is betting that distinction could create an opening.
The Fort Lauderdale based company said Wednesday that it has entered into a development partnership with Lupvindol Biosciences to advance CannEpil, a pharmaceutical cannabinoid formulation originally developed for people with treatment-resistant epilepsy, as a potential medicine for dogs.
The initial focus will be companion-animal oncology and chronic pain management, two areas in which families are increasingly seeking more sophisticated treatment options for pets living longer with serious illnesses.
CannEpil contains purified cannabidiol, or CBD, and tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, isolates in an oral liquid manufactured under European Union Good Manufacturing Practice standards. The formulation has previously been made available through physician-directed and special-access programs outside the U.S., including Germany.
This new collaboration is intended to move CannEpil into a defined veterinary-development program under the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. Lupvindol, a leading innovator in the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions affecting both humans and animals, will lead the scientific work, product development, study planning and regulatory engagement. Splash will provide funding tied to specific milestones and retain ownership of the resulting data, regulatory submissions, medical technology and intellectual property.
“This collaboration converts our expanded CannEpil rights into a defined and capital-efficient FDA development program,” said Brady Cobb, Splash’s interim chief executive. “Our objective is to build a differentiated cannabinoid health sciences platform by pairing high-quality intellectual property with experienced scientific leadership, disciplined regulatory execution and global commercial capabilities.”
CannEpil would enter a market already familiar with cannabinoids, though not necessarily with cannabinoid pharmaceuticals. Consumer pet-CBD products are generally sold as supplements or wellness aids. CannEpil would be developed as a regulated animal drug intended to treat specifically defined medical conditions. That difference carries commercial promise and regulatory responsibility. Splash and Lupvindol plan to begin with the Investigational New Animal Drug process, or INAD, which allows a sponsor to work with the FDA as it develops the technical evidence required for a potential new animal-drug application. The FDA generally recommends a phased-review process in which data supporting different technical requirements are submitted incrementally under the INAD file.
The companies also intend to explore conditional approval under Section 571 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Conditional approval is available only for certain animal drugs, including some treatments for serious or life-threatening conditions in major species such as dogs. A sponsor must demonstrate that the drug is safe when used according to its label and that there is a reasonable expectation of effectiveness, even though the complete effectiveness evidence needed for full approval is still being developed.
The conditional approval pathway can allow an important therapy to become available sooner than it would under the traditional approval process. It doesn’t eliminate the need for rigorous studies, regulatory review or continued evidence gathering.
Splash Secures Experience From the First FDA-Approved CBD Medicine
Splash’s development partner Lupvindol is led by Hunter Land, a pharmaceutical research and development executive who was GW Pharmaceuticals’ first full-time U.S. research employee.
Land participated in the development of Epidiolex, the prescription CBD medicine approved for seizures associated with several rare forms of epilepsy, as well as Sativex, a cannabinoid medicine developed for spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.
“Having participated in the development of Epidiolex, I have seen firsthand how rigorous science, disciplined execution and thoughtful regulatory engagement can transform cannabinoid research into approved pharmaceutical products,” Land said. That experience gives the CannEpil program a connection to one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most closely watched cannabinoid success stories.
Splash will fund any pilot study required by the FDA, subject to a development plan and contractual cap. After a designated regulatory milestone, the company plans to evaluate FDA feedback, remaining development costs and interest from potential animal-health partners before deciding how to proceed. The structure gives Splash the option to advance the program in stages rather than committing all of the anticipated capital at the outset.
Pets, a Growing Pharmaceutical Market
The effort comes as companion-animal healthcare begins to look increasingly like a smaller version of human medicine.
Dogs and cats are living longer, and many families are willing to pursue advanced imaging, oncology care, surgery and long-term treatment for chronic disease. Pharmaceutical companies, in turn, are developing more specialized medicines for pain, cancer, dermatology and age-related conditions.
The global companion-animal pharmaceuticals market was valued at an estimated $21.38 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $38.87 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. North America represented more than 40% of the market in 2025.
Pain management represents one possible entry point for CannEpil. Splash cited industry estimates valuing the global veterinary pain-management market at approximately $2.6 billion in 2024, with projections that it could reach roughly $3.8 billion by 2030. Cancer presents another substantial area of need. Approximately one in four dogs will develop cancer during their lifetime, according to the Veterinary Cancer Society, while nearly half of dogs over the age of 10 will be affected. The National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately six million dogs are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S.
Those figures help explain the growing interest in veterinary oncology, particularly in treatments that could help control pain, appetite loss or other symptoms affecting quality of life.
“Cancer and chronic pain affect millions of companion animals, yet treatment options remain limited in many indications,” Cobb said. “We believe CannEpil’s pharmaceutical-grade formulation warrants disciplined evaluation through the FDA veterinary process.”
From Cannabis Retail to Regulated Medicine
The CannEpil program is also part of a broader reinvention at Splash Beverage Group, which is seeking to evolve from a beverage company into a cannabinoid health, wellness and biopharmaceutical platform.
The strategy reflects Cobb’s own history in the cannabis industry. An attorney with experience in regulation, government affairs and capital markets, Cobb has spent much of his career working at the point where the emerging cannabis sector meets conventional business.
He founded Bluma Wellness and One Plant Florida, building a vertically integrated medical-cannabis operation that included cultivation, retail and delivery. Cresco Labs acquired Bluma in an all-stock transaction initially valued at $213 million in 2021.
Cobb later led Sunburn Cannabis, where he oversaw the acquisition of MedMen’s Florida assets and the development of an integrated cultivation, production and retail operation. His career has tracked the industry’s broader effort to move cannabis away from its countercultural origins and into licensed retail, branded products, institutional transactions and increasingly regulated healthcare applications.
Now as Interim CEO, Cobb has helped in strategically guiding Splash into it’s new swimlane. He also led Splash to acquire exclusive worldwide rights to CannEpil from Argent BioPharma in July. The agreement gave Splash rights to develop, market, distribute and sublicense the formulation within its licensed fields, including future improvements and reformulations.
