Cannabis Companies Gamble on Patents to Lure Possible Suitors

Axim Biotechnologies Inc. can see the future from its Manhattan offices 20 stories above Rockefeller Plaza. And it involves gum.

Axim, which researches, develops, and produces cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals and other products, holds a U.S. patent on a method of infusing cannabis compounds into chewing gum. The company, which has several cannabis-related patents, could be an attractive takeover target for a big chewing gum manufacturer, CEO John Huemoeller II said.

Huemoeller has reason to be optimistic. The U.S. cannabis industry is growing—and consolidating—as more states legalize the substance. As with mergers and acquisitions in more mature industries, such as pharmaceuticals, companies’ ...