Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) Jupiter Research Provides A Production Update Despite The Emergence Of Coronavirus

Investors thought that the coronavirus scourge would impact the way Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) goes about its operations significantly. That doesn’t seem to be the case considering that the business guru has unveiled its production update despite the impact of the deadly virus.

Coronavirus did not shake up matters as was projected

The world was not prepared for Coronavirus, and that is for sure. There has been a lot of grappling in the dark in a bid to find the cure for the ailment. The US government has been at the frontline in trying to seek out ways to eliminate the virus, which has affected a great deal of the world economies.

China is one of the most affected by the deadly disease, and many lives have been lost amidst efforts to curb it. The US president recently challenged policymakers, health and wellness experts, and other parties to put their heads together. The US leader thought that working as a unit would be more productive as compared to the idea of the different parties working separately to find vaccines.

Scatterday’s take

Tilray provides updates about Jupiter Research, which happens to be one of its subsidiaries. According to the business guru, the subsidiary will soon be going back online despite the effects of the delays resulting from the Chinese New Year. The Coronavirus had also raised major concerns, but it is a good thing the business hasn’t been affected immensely.

The CEO of TILT, who also happens to be its founder Mark Scatterday has spoken elaborately regarding the recent developments. The official discloses that they are focused on doing everything possible to take care of the needs of their loyal customers. He outlines that they usually find it frustrating anytime they have to halt production activities over some inevitable conditions.

Scatterday applauds the company’s sales team for its dedication. According to him, the working person has been receiving orders and working on them promptly. Customers have always been happy seeing how the company fulfils their requests on time.

The warehouse of Jupiter lies in Phoenix, Arizona. Reports indicate that it has the sort of inventory that makes it possible to fulfill the wide-ranging customer orders.

Published at Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:23:06 +0000

NewLeaf Brands Inc (OTCMKTS:NLBIF) Completes The Supply Of Fresh Premium CBD Water Bottles To The Largest Night Club Group In Colorado

Drink Fresh CBD, LLC, a subsidiary of NewLeaf Brands Inc (OTCMKTS:NLBIF), has completed the supply of Premium CBD Water Bottles to Colorado-based largest night club. Each 16.9 fluid ounce bottle comprises 5mg of non-amplified CBD.

Ingredients in premium CBD water

Drink Fresh now offers Premium CBD Water in a sleek 12 fluid ounce bottle. Its ingredients include 25 mg of CBD, electrolyte infused alkaline water. It is high in PH.

Chief Marketing Officer of NewLeaf, Benjamin Martch, said the company signed distribution pacts with firms, which are engaged in the distribution of beverages to various suppliers. It has switched to an aluminum bottle from the plastic bottle as an environment substitute.

New sales and revenue initiative for 2020

NewLeaf announced a new sales and revenue initiative for this year. As part of this initiative, its management team is forming sales teams in various states that include the state of Colorado, the US. The company has generated new sales leads since the formation of sales teams in the Colorado State in February 2020.

It has set a weekly goal of five brick and mortar locations and hired 12 experienced sales executives. They have attracted new retail clients in the THC/ CBD space. Commenting on the development, Benjamin said the company is developing a platform of products/ infrastructure to support the new sales initiative and generate more revenues. He is excited to develop a retail presence with the help of a new sales team.

New online market place – The Hemp Stand

NewsLeaf has introduced a new market place called The Hemp Stand, which will feature THC free distillate, hemp flower, isolate, hemp clothing, hemp pre-rolls, and other products.

Signs LOI to acquire a 37.5% stake in Trellis Holdings

NewLeaf has signed a letter of intent with Trellis Holdings to acquire a 37.5% stake. The company will purchase all of the outstanding and issued shares of Trellis to David Joshua Bartch and Benjamin Martch that amounts to a 37.5% stake. As per the terms of the deal, NewLeaf will issue 28 million common shares worth $2.25 million to Trellis. The company considered the closing price of the shares as on February 4, 2020, for the deal.

Published at Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:19:15 +0000

DEA Takes Steps to Approve Cannabis Cultivation Applications, States Issue New Rules for Industry Amid COVID-19 Concerns: Week in Review

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing governments worldwide to take drastic measures to “flatten the curve” and reduce economic fallout, and Canada is no exception. The Great White North closed its border with the U.S. for all non-essential travel (goods are not included in that shutdown), shuttered schools, colleges and universities across the country, and provinces are taking steps to stop all non-essential businesses.

The Canadian cannabis industry, for the most part, can operate as normally as it can. Dispensaries are conducting business with social distancing measures in place, deliveries can be made—although Canada Post will no longer deliver cannabis packages to purchasers’ homes, opting instead for postal office pickup to minimize delivery person exposure—and cultivation sites continue to operate. 

Both the Quebec and Ontario governments have deemed cannabis cultivation and retail businesses “essential” to the marketplace and, as such, can remain open during each province’s mandatory shutdown. Other provinces such as Alberta are considering similar proposals. 

Some companies, however, are taking extra steps to ensure their employee’s, patients and consumers safety. For example, Canopy Growth, a vertically integrated LP, closed its retail storefronts on March 17. “We have a responsibility to our employees, their families, and our communities to do our part to “flatten the curve” by limiting social interactions. For us, that means shifting our focus from retail to e-commerce,” said David Klein, Canopy’s CEO, in a press release. “This is a big decision but it was also an easy one to make – our retail teams are public-facing and have been serving an above-average volume of transactions in recent days. Given the current situation, it is in the best interest of our teams and our communities to close these busy hubs until we are confident we can operate our stores in the best interest of public health.” 

The company is keeping its cultivation operations open but is asking that all employees who can work remotely do so, said Canopy’s VP of Communications Jordan Sinclair in a March 24 email to CBT. The company recently closed facilities in Aldergrove and Delta, British Columbia, and scrapped plans for a third greenhouse at its Niagara-on-the-Lake location in Ontario, both unrelated to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Amid a reported surge in demand, Aurora Cannabis’ “production facilities remain fully operational and … have not experienced any disruptions to regular operations, including [to the] existing supply chain,” said Michelle Lefler, Aurora’s VP of Communications in a March 20 email to CBT. The company is taking steps to mitigate risks, Lefler said, including “implementing good hygiene practices and illness prevention measures across our organization.”

She added that, “at this time, we have paused all business travel and have advised staff to defer personal travel, which we are carefully monitoring. Employees are being provided the option to work from home as per the social distancing procedures advised by the World Health Organization. The company will adapt further guidance to employees as necessary.”

As the Canadian cannabis industry does its part to help the country’s fight against the pandemic, some are feeling left out by the federal government’s lack of resources available to cannabis producers and retailers. As LPs, like the rest of the world, try to figure out how to best navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian government announced that cannabis businesses will not be eligible for business relief funds.

Dan Sutton, CEO of Tantalus Labs, another LP, has been in correspondence with both the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a government-owned development bank, and Farm Credit Canada (FCC), the country’s largest agricultural term lender. Neither have indicated a willingness to work with smaller cannabis firms, he says.

“We confirmed on Friday that BDC remains in their position that ‘we do not do business with cannabis firms at this time,’” Sutton said in a March 23 email to CBT. “Today, our file was taken to credit with FCC who confirmed that their preference is to ‘focus on portfolio companies.’ To my knowledge, there are five firms in Canadian cannabis that currently do business with FCC, so this is not the stimulus lifeline the industry needs right now.”

He added that without provincial and/or federal assistance, “many firms will perish in the economic fallout and liquidity crunch from COVID-19.”

The Alberta Cannabis Council (ACC), a not-for-profit industry trade group serving the province’s cannabis industry stakeholders, shared a letter signed by 74 industry stakeholders with the Canadian government calling for legislators to grant the same access to economic relief programs to the country’s cannabis industry. 

“We are not asking for special treatment, but rather equitable treatment,” the signatories said.

Published at Sat, 28 Mar 2020 12:00:00 +0000

OxiClean Spokesman Anthony Sullivan Turns TV Spotlight on Hemp

The Colombian government issued a new regulation that establishes the regulatory framework to commercialize master cannabis preparations for Colombian medicinal cannabis, a market estimated to comprise some 5 million patients.

On March 2, the Ministry of Health issued Resolution 315, which not only opens up the Colombian market for medicinal cannabis but also allows the transformation of dry cannabis flower into derivative products for companies that set up industries at free trade zones.

“The resolution benefits the sector because it provides clarity on narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors that are subjected to be controlled, and differentiates them from those that do not require oversight,” Rodrigo Arcilla, director of the Colombian cannabis association Asocolcanna told Cannabis Business Times.

Master cannabis preparations with 0.2% of THC or higher, including oils, non-psychoactive and psychoactive cannabis, must be registered to the country’s National Narcotics Fund, according to the resolution.

For the magistral formulations derived from cannabis with less than 0.2% of THC, the derivative products will not be audited by the National Narcotics Fund.

The resolution states that all magistral formulations based on cannabis must be sold only with a medical prescription at pharmacies in this South American nation with a population of 50 million residents.

In addition, all magistral formulations must all be certified by the National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute, INVIMA, for meeting Good Elaborating Practices (GEP) standards. Analysts, companies and law firms believe INVIMA could take between four to 12 months to issue the certificates on GEP practices.

Carlos Ernesto Lucio, expert in cannabis regulation, said the magistral prescriptions are medications intended for a specific patient where active ingredients have been incorporated for a particular person.

The resolution allows patients to access cannabis tablets, capsules, gelatinous cubes, gels, oils, creams, suppositories, patches and liquid or gel based on cannabis.

The law also allows doctors who receive training to recommend medical cannabis to patients with several qualifying conditions, mainly chronic or intractable pain, pain related to cancer and terminal illnesses, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, tumors and insomnia, among others.

Pideka Ikänik Farms, a Colombian-Canadian company with licenses to cultivate, produce, manufacture and export pharmaceutical-grade finished cannabis extract products to European markets from its state-of-the-art Casa Flores camp said that the opening of the Colombian market is a new alternative for them.

“This is a market that opened up in the last two weeks. We had an export plan almost entirely earmarked for our production, and now through the legalization of the master cannabis, Colombia will be able to prescribe medicinal products through doctors,” Borja Sanz de Madrid, president of Pideka told Cannabis Business Times. 

Pideka and the Corporation for Biological Research, CIB, of Antioquia, signed an agreement to advance scientific evidence in the treatment of colon cancer with medicinal cannabis extracts.

“This will be the first study of medicinal cannabis for the treatment of colon cancer in Colombia,” Sanz de Madrid added.

Pideka is an indoor licensed cannabis producer that currently has one warehouse with 1,600 cannabis plants in production, and is in the process of building four additional warehouses that will bring full-production capacity to 165,000 cannabis plants by July 2021. The warehouses are located just outside of Bogotá.

The Colombian-Canadian company PharmaCielo said the medicinal market will take some time to fully develop “as the industry must continue to develop appropriate treatments and the medical community (doctors) must continue to be educated about medicinal cannabis,” David Gordon, chief commercial officer of PharmaCielo said. Gordon noted that the new resolution is a significant step forward in helping patients get improved while broader access to medicinal cannabis treatment. Pharmacielo has 12.1 hectares (1.3 million square feet) in cannabis production to tap the local and foreign market.

Clever Leaves management said the main beneficiaries of the resolution are Colombian patients. “This was a part of the regulation that was pending. This is a good resolution that comes to serve patients in Colombia,” Julian Wilches, regulatory director at Clever Leaves said.

Clever Leaves is a vertically-integrated licensed producer of pharmaceutical grade medical cannabis and hemp extracts. The company has 15 hectares fully in production in the central province of Boyacá and a sophisticated laboratory in Tocancipá, located north of Bogotá. 

Private producer medcann Colombia, the local unit of Canadian medcann Pharma, said all companies will benefit with the opening of the local market “because the export market presents many difficulties due to the lack of global regulation for this industry,” according to medcann CEO Felipe Harker.

In Colombia, only one medicine based on cannabis derivatives is sold presently. The imported product called Sativex, bought from the UK laboratory GW Pharma, is used for muscle spasticity in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. Sativex is the only medicine that has received import authorization from INVIMA.

Paulo Vega, medical director at laboratory Biopas, which imports Sativex, says they will welcome the arrival of new medicinal products based on cannabis so long as they comply with the rigorous scientific method and as long as the products fulfill with the standardization of prescriptions.

The new resolution moves forward in the uses of cannabis for local consumption. Under the decree 1156 issued in July 2018, Colombia had already allowed the so-called phytotherapeutic products, of what are commonly known as herbal medicines not just based on cannabis but also coca and poppy.

Free Trade Zones

One of the most important aspect of the resolution is that it allows companies that set up their operations in free trade zones to receive tax benefits, a move that will boost the development of the cannabis industry in this Andean nation. The resolution also allows the transformation of dry cannabis flower into sub-products for companies that establishes their industrial process at free trade zones, consultancy and law firms said.

Consultancy firm Araujo Ibarra says companies will be exempted from paying value-added-taxes on machinery equipment and construction materials, compared with the 19% levy they would pay if they are outside a free trade zone.

In addition, companies will be exonerated from paying tariffs on imported cannabis, compared with the 11.5% tariff they pay now.

Cannabis companies within the free trade zones will pay 20% in income taxes to the government, compared with 33% they will pay if they are outside free trade zones.

“Until recently, Colombian banned the arrival of dry flower into Free Trade Zones. Now, dry flower produced in the country can go into the Free Trade Zone for transformation for derived products such as cannabis extracts or oils,” Arcilla said noting that the objective is to inject value-added to dry flowers.  

Colombia still bans the export and import of dry flower.

The resolution also allows companies to import cannabis products to be transformed into medicines or sub-products so long as companies are registered with the National Narcotics Fund and only if they are they have an authorized import quota. The company will also have to inform the National Narcotics Funds the amounts of by-products to be produced by dry flower and who is going to buy it. “By doing so, the fund will have a traceability of the total amount of medicines that are under control,” Arcilla said.

Sanz de Madrid believes companies that begin from scratch are those that will set up their indoor-production plants at free trade zones. For companies like Pideka that has invested $3 million in the indoor-warehouses, and has a laboratory already established moving to a free trade zone will not be beneficial. The company is in the process of investing an additional $7 million in the construction of four additional warehouses.

Published at Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:25:00 +0000