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Three areas that could make early cannabis investors even richer

by

Photo: Testing, research and extraction technologies are one of three prime areas where the massive Cannabis boom is being felt immediately. We’ve singled out Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF) (CSE: ATT) as an example company that cannabis minded investors can get in on ahead of the crowd.

After what was easily the hottest year for cannabis stocks, expectations on the legal marijuana related sector are higher than ever.

Of the dozen main players in the space, the average marijuana stock is up 332% over the past year.1

What savvy investors are focussing on now is how this rapidly developing sector can support what looks to be massive growth into the future. Apart from the obvious legalization, three areas are emerging that will be critical in the bid to ensure the sector’s meteoric rise: Better Testing and Extraction, More Medical Uses and Ensuring Adequate Supplies.

Companies who can deliver on these promises stand to make Cannabis investors a lot of money.

One company that appears to be well situated to capitalize on the Research, Testing and Extraction segment is Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF), which we discuss below, along with a few other key players positioned for success.

The overall optimism led researchers at New Frontier Data to project that the cannabis industry will have created a whopping 283,422 jobs, grow to and generate $2.3 Billion in tax revenue—both by 2020.2

The same study predicted that the sector as a whole will grow to $24.1 Billion by 2025.

But in order to maintain the course in order to get to $24 Billion, companies will need to meet the demands of these three key developing areas:

– Our first and favorite sector may surprise you since it is not actually the cultivation, it’s going to be way bigger, and we’ve found a company that is widely undiscovered as noted below in our first example:

  1.  BETTER TESTING AND EXTRACTION

    Company: Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF)

    Mkt Cap: $15.21M

    Still very early in its company’s story, Abattis has wisely burst onto the scene as a tester.  Wasting no time in getting its cannabis testing facility opened in Langley, BC, ahead of Canada’s full-scale legalization4 of cannabis expected by July 1, 2018, Abattis swiftly got itself into the game and already has garnered revenues.

    Abattis Bioceuticals’ subsidiary Northern Vine Labs opened its doors in May 2017, to serve the rising demand for cannabis testing. The company had been pursuing that license since 2014, and officially became licensed in October 2016.

    What is cannabis testing?

    In order to maintain quality control, and meet both regulatory, and market demands, cannabis laboratories test for potency, purity, and details such as terpene counts. Testing also protects the consumer by screening for contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals, and unapproved pesticides.

    (For more information on Health Canada’s mandatory testing on medical cannabis click here. )

    For the 52 licensed producers in Canada, Health Canada introduced random testing to address these issues. Abattis’s facility is just 1 of 30 approved facilities in Canada, and one of the eight in BC’s lower mainland. Even better, Abattis is the only company available on the public markets, making it a solid choice in this sector. Once recreational cannabis becomes available in mid-2018, everyone will have to use a facility like what Abattis already has a leg up on, so keep that in mind while the PPS is low here.

    “Abattis Bioceuticals is one of very few publicly listed companies with comprehensive testing and extraction capabilities. They are also one of only 30 Health Canada approved labs able to handle cannabis for all forms of testing.”

    Demand for cannabis testing is big and getting bigger fast.

    The global cannabis testing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%, culminating towards a $1.42 billion market by 2021.5

    In order to hit the shelves, producers will need to have an accurate depiction of the drug’s potency, including the levels of the most sought after medicinal components of cannabis, THC and CBD. To do that, even the mega producers will require a third party to test their product before it goes to market.

    Abattis is smartly staking itself as a leader in the testing field, having built a lab, and staffed it with industry experts to ensure the quality standard they promise the sector.

    The Northern Vine Labs facility will not just be used for testing, however. Another major component to the facility will be in extraction and formulation.

    This means that the company will be involved in innovation of methods to extract medicinal components from cannabis on a massive industrial scale, and to formulate them for consumer products.

    As a cooperative arm of the company to run in conjunction with Northern Vine Labs, Abattis has formed another subsidiary called Vergence, in order to market and sell natural, safe, and effective health products.

    Those products will target reducing pain caused from inflammation, boost immunity, and increase nutrient absorption. As natural remedies, these products will likely reach the market faster than a pharmaceutical product would, without the lengthy and costly clinical trials.

    According to the CBD Report published by The Hemp Business Journal, the US hemp-derived CBD market will total approximately $115 million this year, with an estimate to grow to $2.1 billion by 2020.6

    Abattis is tight-lipped about its ability to extract cannabinoids and terpenoids from cannabis at its facilities, however, it hasn’t been shy about hinting that it aims to be a leader in the extraction space. There’s a possibility that extraction will overtake testing as the company’s primary revenue model in the future.

     

  2.  MORE MEDICAL USES

    Company: Cara Therapeutics (CARA)

    Mkt Cap: $495M

    After a wild month that saw Cara Therapeutics rise to $26 per share, and plummeting to $12 per share within a week, this giant is on its way back to stardom.

    The bounce back came on the announcement of encouraging data from its phase 1 trials of oral CR845, as a treatment for pain and itching in patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis. All tested doses were well tolerated when administrated daily.

    This came as a relief for shareholders after they saw the value of the company drop upon the same drug’s treatment for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee. Lower doses achieved statistical significance. Only the highest dose received statistical significance. It’s still possible based on those results to test higher doses for significance.

    Medical marijuana sales, from pharmaceutical extracts to medically cultivated flowers, currently make up the lion’s share of the cannabis sector. Medical sales in 2017 are projected to grow to $5.3 billion in 2017, and account for 67% of total cannabis sales.2

    That means that medical cannabis patients are outspending adult-use consumers at a nearly 3 to 1 basis.

    While medical sales are projected to exceed $13.2 billion by 2020, the medical share of the total cannabis sales is expected to drop to 55% of all sales as well.

    Much of that has to do with the recreational legalization in larger states, like California, and in holiday states like Nevada.

    As cannabis stocks fly, the developers of new medicinal applications and products stand to make the most gains.

    While Cara fluctuated during its trials, new drug development was the reason that AXIM Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: AXIM) absolutely crushed it in 2016-17.

    As stated earlier, the average marijuana stock rose 332% over the last year.

    Much of that increase is skewed by the meteoric rise of AXIM Biotechnologies, whose year-over-year increase was 2,363%.

    You read that right.

    A large portion of that success can be attributed to the development of AXIM’s CanChew Plus Chewing Gum, used for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome—or IBS. Used as an alternative delivery system to inhalation, CanChew tapped into the act of chewing which bypasses the gastrointestinal system and improves the bioavailability of cannabinoids.3

    Because medical uses for cannabis are still in their infancy, there are plenty of repeatable AXIM-like stories out there yet to be told.

 

  1. ENSURING A SUPPLY CHAIN SURPLUS

          Aurora Cannabis – ACBFF, ACB

          Mkt Cap: $941.6M

Second only to Axim over the last year was top performer Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACBFF)(TSX: ACB), which grew 465% year-over-year, rising from a low of $0.30 to $2.59 and a market cap just a shade under a Billion, at $941.6 million.

The company’s well deserved move to the TSX from the TSX venture this week is a pat on the back for a solid year that included record yields at Aurora’s Mountain View County production facility, and on the anticipation of the opening of its 100,000+ kg Aurora Sky facility to be located near the Edmonton International Airport.

With the nearing completion of a third production facility in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Aurora’s production capacity is skyrocketing.

But supplies are still lagging in the market as a whole, especially after shelves emptied rapidly in Nevada after the state began adult-use sales on July 1.

Supply issues reached such dire levels, that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval had to issue a state of emergency to allow state officials to decide on new rules to ease the shortage.7

As Canada (where Aurora is headquartered) inches closer to nation-wide marijuana legalization, it’s doubtful that the country will encounter the same scale of supply problems that hit Nevada.8 Especially with massive production coming from companies such as Aurora.

With other major Canadian producers, such as Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) growing for both the North American and German markets, it’ll be interesting to see how supplies meet demand on a global scale.

CAPTURING THE TREND

Cannabis has still not been registered as a medicine in any country, and only a small number of cannabinoid medicines have reached the market.

With over 100 cannabinoids, and over 700 other compounds such as flavonoids and terpenes, the cannabis plant is still barely understood, as the legality over researching it, and testing its benefits has provided hurdles until recently.9

Hence the need for new, better and more abundant research and testing capabilities to keep pace with the industry’s growth.

“In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.”

Public perception of the drug has changed significantly over the past decade, with it being seen more favorably than ever.

According to a survey2 done by New Frontier Data and Full Circle Research this January, 55% of respondents believed “cannabis should be legalized, regulated and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol”, and an additional 26% believed it should at least be “legal for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation.”

In fact, only 9% responded that cannabis should be illegal. Overall, 63% of those surveyed believed that the federal government should legalize cannabis, and 86% believed it has valid medical uses.

In 2016, 4 out of the 5 US states that voted on adult-use of cannabis passed legalization initiatives, with an average adult-use vote of 53% in favour. And all 4 states that voted on medical use passed their initiatives, with an average medical use vote of 62%.

For those that still hold doubt to the growth potential of the cannabis sector, there’s really nothing that will convince you. Sales are growing significantly for retailers, even as more retailers hit the scene.

In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.

If, as all of the indicators suggest, the industry continues on its staggering growth, the opportunity to take advantage of the emerging trends is here, now. The benefactors of the impact like Abattis Bioceuticals, stand to make huge gains, while the leaders like Aurora Cannabis and Axim can build an even bigger lead against competitors who must surely emerge.

 

For American News Group

By G. Joel Chury

Edited by; American News Group Editorial Staff

 

FOOTNOTES:

1 – Motley Fool (July 2017) – The Average Marijuana Stock is up 332% over the past year

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/24/the-average-marijuana-stock-is-up-332-over-the-tra.aspx?yptr=yahoo

2 – New Frontier Data – The Cannabis Industry Annual Report: 2017 Legal Marijuana Outlook

https://newfrontierdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CIAR_Webinar_FINAL.pdf

3 – YAHOO! Finance – AXIM Biotech: Cannabinoid Potential Worth the Complexity

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/axim-biotech-cannabinoid-potential-worth-130000914.html

4 – Toronto Star – Trudeau government to legalize marijuana by Canada Day 2018: reports

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/26/trudeau-government-to-legalize-marijuana-by-canada-day-2018-reports.html

5 – Markets and Markets (March 2017) – Cannabis Testing Market by Product & Software (LC, GC, Spectroscopy (MS, Atomic), Column, Standards, Accessories, LIMS), Service (Potency, Pesticides, Heavy Metal, Genetic Testing), End User (Lab, Pharmaceutical, Research) – Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cannabis-testing-market-46932450.html

6 – Hemp Business Journal – The CBD Report

https://www.hempbizjournal.com/the-cbd-report/

7 – Fox News (July 2017) – Nevada marijuana supply running low, state of emergency declared, governor says

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/11/nevada-marijuana-supply-running-low-state-emergency-declared-governor-says.html

8 – Fortune Magazine – Here’s Why Nevada’s Marijuana Supply Can’t Keep up with Sales

https://fortune.com/2017/07/12/nevada-marijuana-taxes-shortage/

9 – The Medicine Maker (June 2017) – Cannabis Complex

https://themedicinemaker.com/issues/0617/cannabis-complex/

Disclaimer: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. Americannewsgroup.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. (“MIQ”). MIQ has been paid a fee for Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. from the company direct of ten thousand canadian dollars, as well as two hundred and fifty thousand free trading shares of ATT.CN for advertising and digital media. There may be 3rd parties who may have shares of Abattis Bioceuticals Corp., and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this newsletter as the basis for any investment decision. We have no intentions of selling any shares within the next 72 hours of this publishing date (August 9, 2017), but reserve the right to buy and sell shares thereafter without any further notice.
While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between the any predictions and actual results. Always consult a real licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment

Three areas that could make early cannabis investors even richer

by

Photo: Testing, research and extraction technologies are one of three prime areas where the massive Cannabis boom is being felt immediately. We’ve singled out Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF) (CSE: ATT) as an example company that cannabis minded investors can get in on ahead of the crowd.

After what was easily the hottest year for cannabis stocks, expectations on the legal marijuana related sector are higher than ever.

Of the dozen main players in the space, the average marijuana stock is up 332% over the past year.1

What savvy investors are focussing on now is how this rapidly developing sector can support what looks to be massive growth into the future. Apart from the obvious legalization, three areas are emerging that will be critical in the bid to ensure the sector’s meteoric rise: Better Testing and Extraction, More Medical Uses and Ensuring Adequate Supplies.

Companies who can deliver on these promises stand to make Cannabis investors a lot of money.

One company that appears to be well situated to capitalize on the Research, Testing and Extraction segment is Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF), which we discuss below, along with a few other key players positioned for success.

The overall optimism led researchers at New Frontier Data to project that the cannabis industry will have created a whopping 283,422 jobs, grow to and generate $2.3 Billion in tax revenue—both by 2020.2

The same study predicted that the sector as a whole will grow to $24.1 Billion by 2025.

But in order to maintain the course in order to get to $24 Billion, companies will need to meet the demands of these three key developing areas:

– Our first and favorite sector may surprise you since it is not actually the cultivation, it’s going to be way bigger, and we’ve found a company that is widely undiscovered as noted below in our first example:

  1.  BETTER TESTING AND EXTRACTION

    Company: Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF)

    Mkt Cap: $15.21M

    Still very early in its company’s story, Abattis has wisely burst onto the scene as a tester.  Wasting no time in getting its cannabis testing facility opened in Langley, BC, ahead of Canada’s full-scale legalization4 of cannabis expected by July 1, 2018, Abattis swiftly got itself into the game and already has garnered revenues.

    Abattis Bioceuticals’ subsidiary Northern Vine Labs opened its doors in May 2017, to serve the rising demand for cannabis testing. The company had been pursuing that license since 2014, and officially became licensed in October 2016.

    What is cannabis testing?

    In order to maintain quality control, and meet both regulatory, and market demands, cannabis laboratories test for potency, purity, and details such as terpene counts. Testing also protects the consumer by screening for contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals, and unapproved pesticides.

    (For more information on Health Canada’s mandatory testing on medical cannabis click here. )

    For the 52 licensed producers in Canada, Health Canada introduced random testing to address these issues. Abattis’s facility is just 1 of 30 approved facilities in Canada, and one of the eight in BC’s lower mainland. Even better, Abattis is the only company available on the public markets, making it a solid choice in this sector. Once recreational cannabis becomes available in mid-2018, everyone will have to use a facility like what Abattis already has a leg up on, so keep that in mind while the PPS is low here.

    “Abattis Bioceuticals is one of very few publicly listed companies with comprehensive testing and extraction capabilities. They are also one of only 30 Health Canada approved labs able to handle cannabis for all forms of testing.”

    Demand for cannabis testing is big and getting bigger fast.

    The global cannabis testing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%, culminating towards a $1.42 billion market by 2021.5

    In order to hit the shelves, producers will need to have an accurate depiction of the drug’s potency, including the levels of the most sought after medicinal components of cannabis, THC and CBD. To do that, even the mega producers will require a third party to test their product before it goes to market.

    Abattis is smartly staking itself as a leader in the testing field, having built a lab, and staffed it with industry experts to ensure the quality standard they promise the sector.

    The Northern Vine Labs facility will not just be used for testing, however. Another major component to the facility will be in extraction and formulation.

    This means that the company will be involved in innovation of methods to extract medicinal components from cannabis on a massive industrial scale, and to formulate them for consumer products.

    As a cooperative arm of the company to run in conjunction with Northern Vine Labs, Abattis has formed another subsidiary called Vergence, in order to market and sell natural, safe, and effective health products.

    Those products will target reducing pain caused from inflammation, boost immunity, and increase nutrient absorption. As natural remedies, these products will likely reach the market faster than a pharmaceutical product would, without the lengthy and costly clinical trials.

    According to the CBD Report published by The Hemp Business Journal, the US hemp-derived CBD market will total approximately $115 million this year, with an estimate to grow to $2.1 billion by 2020.6

    Abattis is tight-lipped about its ability to extract cannabinoids and terpenoids from cannabis at its facilities, however, it hasn’t been shy about hinting that it aims to be a leader in the extraction space. There’s a possibility that extraction will overtake testing as the company’s primary revenue model in the future.

     

  2.  MORE MEDICAL USES

    Company: Cara Therapeutics (CARA)

    Mkt Cap: $495M

    After a wild month that saw Cara Therapeutics rise to $26 per share, and plummeting to $12 per share within a week, this giant is on its way back to stardom.

    The bounce back came on the announcement of encouraging data from its phase 1 trials of oral CR845, as a treatment for pain and itching in patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis. All tested doses were well tolerated when administrated daily.

    This came as a relief for shareholders after they saw the value of the company drop upon the same drug’s treatment for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee. Lower doses achieved statistical significance. Only the highest dose received statistical significance. It’s still possible based on those results to test higher doses for significance.

    Medical marijuana sales, from pharmaceutical extracts to medically cultivated flowers, currently make up the lion’s share of the cannabis sector. Medical sales in 2017 are projected to grow to $5.3 billion in 2017, and account for 67% of total cannabis sales.2

    That means that medical cannabis patients are outspending adult-use consumers at a nearly 3 to 1 basis.

    While medical sales are projected to exceed $13.2 billion by 2020, the medical share of the total cannabis sales is expected to drop to 55% of all sales as well.

    Much of that has to do with the recreational legalization in larger states, like California, and in holiday states like Nevada.

    As cannabis stocks fly, the developers of new medicinal applications and products stand to make the most gains.

    While Cara fluctuated during its trials, new drug development was the reason that AXIM Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: AXIM) absolutely crushed it in 2016-17.

    As stated earlier, the average marijuana stock rose 332% over the last year.

    Much of that increase is skewed by the meteoric rise of AXIM Biotechnologies, whose year-over-year increase was 2,363%.

    You read that right.

    A large portion of that success can be attributed to the development of AXIM’s CanChew Plus Chewing Gum, used for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome—or IBS. Used as an alternative delivery system to inhalation, CanChew tapped into the act of chewing which bypasses the gastrointestinal system and improves the bioavailability of cannabinoids.3

    Because medical uses for cannabis are still in their infancy, there are plenty of repeatable AXIM-like stories out there yet to be told.

 

  1. ENSURING A SUPPLY CHAIN SURPLUS

          Aurora Cannabis – ACBFF, ACB

          Mkt Cap: $941.6M

Second only to Axim over the last year was top performer Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACBFF)(TSX: ACB), which grew 465% year-over-year, rising from a low of $0.30 to $2.59 and a market cap just a shade under a Billion, at $941.6 million.

The company’s well deserved move to the TSX from the TSX venture this week is a pat on the back for a solid year that included record yields at Aurora’s Mountain View County production facility, and on the anticipation of the opening of its 100,000+ kg Aurora Sky facility to be located near the Edmonton International Airport.

With the nearing completion of a third production facility in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Aurora’s production capacity is skyrocketing.

But supplies are still lagging in the market as a whole, especially after shelves emptied rapidly in Nevada after the state began adult-use sales on July 1.

Supply issues reached such dire levels, that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval had to issue a state of emergency to allow state officials to decide on new rules to ease the shortage.7

As Canada (where Aurora is headquartered) inches closer to nation-wide marijuana legalization, it’s doubtful that the country will encounter the same scale of supply problems that hit Nevada.8 Especially with massive production coming from companies such as Aurora.

With other major Canadian producers, such as Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) growing for both the North American and German markets, it’ll be interesting to see how supplies meet demand on a global scale.

CAPTURING THE TREND

Cannabis has still not been registered as a medicine in any country, and only a small number of cannabinoid medicines have reached the market.

With over 100 cannabinoids, and over 700 other compounds such as flavonoids and terpenes, the cannabis plant is still barely understood, as the legality over researching it, and testing its benefits has provided hurdles until recently.9

Hence the need for new, better and more abundant research and testing capabilities to keep pace with the industry’s growth.

“In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.”

Public perception of the drug has changed significantly over the past decade, with it being seen more favorably than ever.

According to a survey2 done by New Frontier Data and Full Circle Research this January, 55% of respondents believed “cannabis should be legalized, regulated and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol”, and an additional 26% believed it should at least be “legal for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation.”

In fact, only 9% responded that cannabis should be illegal. Overall, 63% of those surveyed believed that the federal government should legalize cannabis, and 86% believed it has valid medical uses.

In 2016, 4 out of the 5 US states that voted on adult-use of cannabis passed legalization initiatives, with an average adult-use vote of 53% in favour. And all 4 states that voted on medical use passed their initiatives, with an average medical use vote of 62%.

For those that still hold doubt to the growth potential of the cannabis sector, there’s really nothing that will convince you. Sales are growing significantly for retailers, even as more retailers hit the scene.

In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.

If, as all of the indicators suggest, the industry continues on its staggering growth, the opportunity to take advantage of the emerging trends is here, now. The benefactors of the impact like Abattis Bioceuticals, stand to make huge gains, while the leaders like Aurora Cannabis and Axim can build an even bigger lead against competitors who must surely emerge.

 

For American News Group

By G. Joel Chury

Edited by; American News Group Editorial Staff

 

FOOTNOTES:

1 – Motley Fool (July 2017) – The Average Marijuana Stock is up 332% over the past year

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/24/the-average-marijuana-stock-is-up-332-over-the-tra.aspx?yptr=yahoo

2 – New Frontier Data – The Cannabis Industry Annual Report: 2017 Legal Marijuana Outlook

https://newfrontierdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CIAR_Webinar_FINAL.pdf

3 – YAHOO! Finance – AXIM Biotech: Cannabinoid Potential Worth the Complexity

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/axim-biotech-cannabinoid-potential-worth-130000914.html

4 – Toronto Star – Trudeau government to legalize marijuana by Canada Day 2018: reports

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/26/trudeau-government-to-legalize-marijuana-by-canada-day-2018-reports.html

5 – Markets and Markets (March 2017) – Cannabis Testing Market by Product & Software (LC, GC, Spectroscopy (MS, Atomic), Column, Standards, Accessories, LIMS), Service (Potency, Pesticides, Heavy Metal, Genetic Testing), End User (Lab, Pharmaceutical, Research) – Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cannabis-testing-market-46932450.html

6 – Hemp Business Journal – The CBD Report

https://www.hempbizjournal.com/the-cbd-report/

7 – Fox News (July 2017) – Nevada marijuana supply running low, state of emergency declared, governor says

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/11/nevada-marijuana-supply-running-low-state-emergency-declared-governor-says.html

8 – Fortune Magazine – Here’s Why Nevada’s Marijuana Supply Can’t Keep up with Sales

https://fortune.com/2017/07/12/nevada-marijuana-taxes-shortage/

9 – The Medicine Maker (June 2017) – Cannabis Complex

https://themedicinemaker.com/issues/0617/cannabis-complex/

Disclaimer: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. Americannewsgroup.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. (“MIQ”). MIQ has been paid a fee for Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. from the company direct of ten thousand canadian dollars, as well as two hundred and fifty thousand free trading shares of ATT.CN for advertising and digital media. There may be 3rd parties who may have shares of Abattis Bioceuticals Corp., and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this newsletter as the basis for any investment decision. We have no intentions of selling any shares within the next 72 hours of this publishing date (August 9, 2017), but reserve the right to buy and sell shares thereafter without any further notice.
While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between the any predictions and actual results. Always consult a real licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment

Three areas that could make early cannabis investors even richer

by

Photo: Testing, research and extraction technologies are one of three prime areas where the massive Cannabis boom is being felt immediately. We’ve singled out Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF) (CSE: ATT) as an example company that cannabis minded investors can get in on ahead of the crowd.

After what was easily the hottest year for cannabis stocks, expectations on the legal marijuana related sector are higher than ever.

Of the dozen main players in the space, the average marijuana stock is up 332% over the past year.1

What savvy investors are focussing on now is how this rapidly developing sector can support what looks to be massive growth into the future. Apart from the obvious legalization, three areas are emerging that will be critical in the bid to ensure the sector’s meteoric rise: Better Testing and Extraction, More Medical Uses and Ensuring Adequate Supplies.

Companies who can deliver on these promises stand to make Cannabis investors a lot of money.

One company that appears to be well situated to capitalize on the Research, Testing and Extraction segment is Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF), which we discuss below, along with a few other key players positioned for success.

The overall optimism led researchers at New Frontier Data to project that the cannabis industry will have created a whopping 283,422 jobs, grow to and generate $2.3 Billion in tax revenue—both by 2020.2

The same study predicted that the sector as a whole will grow to $24.1 Billion by 2025.

But in order to maintain the course in order to get to $24 Billion, companies will need to meet the demands of these three key developing areas:

– Our first and favorite sector may surprise you since it is not actually the cultivation, it’s going to be way bigger, and we’ve found a company that is widely undiscovered as noted below in our first example:

  1.  BETTER TESTING AND EXTRACTION

    Company: Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF)

    Mkt Cap: $15.21M

    Still very early in its company’s story, Abattis has wisely burst onto the scene as a tester.  Wasting no time in getting its cannabis testing facility opened in Langley, BC, ahead of Canada’s full-scale legalization4 of cannabis expected by July 1, 2018, Abattis swiftly got itself into the game and already has garnered revenues.

    Abattis Bioceuticals’ subsidiary Northern Vine Labs opened its doors in May 2017, to serve the rising demand for cannabis testing. The company had been pursuing that license since 2014, and officially became licensed in October 2016.

    What is cannabis testing?

    In order to maintain quality control, and meet both regulatory, and market demands, cannabis laboratories test for potency, purity, and details such as terpene counts. Testing also protects the consumer by screening for contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals, and unapproved pesticides.

    (For more information on Health Canada’s mandatory testing on medical cannabis click here. )

    For the 52 licensed producers in Canada, Health Canada introduced random testing to address these issues. Abattis’s facility is just 1 of 30 approved facilities in Canada, and one of the eight in BC’s lower mainland. Even better, Abattis is the only company available on the public markets, making it a solid choice in this sector. Once recreational cannabis becomes available in mid-2018, everyone will have to use a facility like what Abattis already has a leg up on, so keep that in mind while the PPS is low here.

    “Abattis Bioceuticals is one of very few publicly listed companies with comprehensive testing and extraction capabilities. They are also one of only 30 Health Canada approved labs able to handle cannabis for all forms of testing.”

    Demand for cannabis testing is big and getting bigger fast.

    The global cannabis testing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%, culminating towards a $1.42 billion market by 2021.5

    In order to hit the shelves, producers will need to have an accurate depiction of the drug’s potency, including the levels of the most sought after medicinal components of cannabis, THC and CBD. To do that, even the mega producers will require a third party to test their product before it goes to market.

    Abattis is smartly staking itself as a leader in the testing field, having built a lab, and staffed it with industry experts to ensure the quality standard they promise the sector.

    The Northern Vine Labs facility will not just be used for testing, however. Another major component to the facility will be in extraction and formulation.

    This means that the company will be involved in innovation of methods to extract medicinal components from cannabis on a massive industrial scale, and to formulate them for consumer products.

    As a cooperative arm of the company to run in conjunction with Northern Vine Labs, Abattis has formed another subsidiary called Vergence, in order to market and sell natural, safe, and effective health products.

    Those products will target reducing pain caused from inflammation, boost immunity, and increase nutrient absorption. As natural remedies, these products will likely reach the market faster than a pharmaceutical product would, without the lengthy and costly clinical trials.

    According to the CBD Report published by The Hemp Business Journal, the US hemp-derived CBD market will total approximately $115 million this year, with an estimate to grow to $2.1 billion by 2020.6

    Abattis is tight-lipped about its ability to extract cannabinoids and terpenoids from cannabis at its facilities, however, it hasn’t been shy about hinting that it aims to be a leader in the extraction space. There’s a possibility that extraction will overtake testing as the company’s primary revenue model in the future.

     

  2.  MORE MEDICAL USES

    Company: Cara Therapeutics (CARA)

    Mkt Cap: $495M

    After a wild month that saw Cara Therapeutics rise to $26 per share, and plummeting to $12 per share within a week, this giant is on its way back to stardom.

    The bounce back came on the announcement of encouraging data from its phase 1 trials of oral CR845, as a treatment for pain and itching in patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis. All tested doses were well tolerated when administrated daily.

    This came as a relief for shareholders after they saw the value of the company drop upon the same drug’s treatment for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee. Lower doses achieved statistical significance. Only the highest dose received statistical significance. It’s still possible based on those results to test higher doses for significance.

    Medical marijuana sales, from pharmaceutical extracts to medically cultivated flowers, currently make up the lion’s share of the cannabis sector. Medical sales in 2017 are projected to grow to $5.3 billion in 2017, and account for 67% of total cannabis sales.2

    That means that medical cannabis patients are outspending adult-use consumers at a nearly 3 to 1 basis.

    While medical sales are projected to exceed $13.2 billion by 2020, the medical share of the total cannabis sales is expected to drop to 55% of all sales as well.

    Much of that has to do with the recreational legalization in larger states, like California, and in holiday states like Nevada.

    As cannabis stocks fly, the developers of new medicinal applications and products stand to make the most gains.

    While Cara fluctuated during its trials, new drug development was the reason that AXIM Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: AXIM) absolutely crushed it in 2016-17.

    As stated earlier, the average marijuana stock rose 332% over the last year.

    Much of that increase is skewed by the meteoric rise of AXIM Biotechnologies, whose year-over-year increase was 2,363%.

    You read that right.

    A large portion of that success can be attributed to the development of AXIM’s CanChew Plus Chewing Gum, used for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome—or IBS. Used as an alternative delivery system to inhalation, CanChew tapped into the act of chewing which bypasses the gastrointestinal system and improves the bioavailability of cannabinoids.3

    Because medical uses for cannabis are still in their infancy, there are plenty of repeatable AXIM-like stories out there yet to be told.

 

  1. ENSURING A SUPPLY CHAIN SURPLUS

          Aurora Cannabis – ACBFF, ACB

          Mkt Cap: $941.6M

Second only to Axim over the last year was top performer Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACBFF)(TSX: ACB), which grew 465% year-over-year, rising from a low of $0.30 to $2.59 and a market cap just a shade under a Billion, at $941.6 million.

The company’s well deserved move to the TSX from the TSX venture this week is a pat on the back for a solid year that included record yields at Aurora’s Mountain View County production facility, and on the anticipation of the opening of its 100,000+ kg Aurora Sky facility to be located near the Edmonton International Airport.

With the nearing completion of a third production facility in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Aurora’s production capacity is skyrocketing.

But supplies are still lagging in the market as a whole, especially after shelves emptied rapidly in Nevada after the state began adult-use sales on July 1.

Supply issues reached such dire levels, that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval had to issue a state of emergency to allow state officials to decide on new rules to ease the shortage.7

As Canada (where Aurora is headquartered) inches closer to nation-wide marijuana legalization, it’s doubtful that the country will encounter the same scale of supply problems that hit Nevada.8 Especially with massive production coming from companies such as Aurora.

With other major Canadian producers, such as Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) growing for both the North American and German markets, it’ll be interesting to see how supplies meet demand on a global scale.

CAPTURING THE TREND

Cannabis has still not been registered as a medicine in any country, and only a small number of cannabinoid medicines have reached the market.

With over 100 cannabinoids, and over 700 other compounds such as flavonoids and terpenes, the cannabis plant is still barely understood, as the legality over researching it, and testing its benefits has provided hurdles until recently.9

Hence the need for new, better and more abundant research and testing capabilities to keep pace with the industry’s growth.

“In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.”

Public perception of the drug has changed significantly over the past decade, with it being seen more favorably than ever.

According to a survey2 done by New Frontier Data and Full Circle Research this January, 55% of respondents believed “cannabis should be legalized, regulated and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol”, and an additional 26% believed it should at least be “legal for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation.”

In fact, only 9% responded that cannabis should be illegal. Overall, 63% of those surveyed believed that the federal government should legalize cannabis, and 86% believed it has valid medical uses.

In 2016, 4 out of the 5 US states that voted on adult-use of cannabis passed legalization initiatives, with an average adult-use vote of 53% in favour. And all 4 states that voted on medical use passed their initiatives, with an average medical use vote of 62%.

For those that still hold doubt to the growth potential of the cannabis sector, there’s really nothing that will convince you. Sales are growing significantly for retailers, even as more retailers hit the scene.

In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.

If, as all of the indicators suggest, the industry continues on its staggering growth, the opportunity to take advantage of the emerging trends is here, now. The benefactors of the impact like Abattis Bioceuticals, stand to make huge gains, while the leaders like Aurora Cannabis and Axim can build an even bigger lead against competitors who must surely emerge.

 

For American News Group

By G. Joel Chury

Edited by; American News Group Editorial Staff

 

FOOTNOTES:

1 – Motley Fool (July 2017) – The Average Marijuana Stock is up 332% over the past year

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/24/the-average-marijuana-stock-is-up-332-over-the-tra.aspx?yptr=yahoo

2 – New Frontier Data – The Cannabis Industry Annual Report: 2017 Legal Marijuana Outlook

https://newfrontierdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CIAR_Webinar_FINAL.pdf

3 – YAHOO! Finance – AXIM Biotech: Cannabinoid Potential Worth the Complexity

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/axim-biotech-cannabinoid-potential-worth-130000914.html

4 – Toronto Star – Trudeau government to legalize marijuana by Canada Day 2018: reports

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/26/trudeau-government-to-legalize-marijuana-by-canada-day-2018-reports.html

5 – Markets and Markets (March 2017) – Cannabis Testing Market by Product & Software (LC, GC, Spectroscopy (MS, Atomic), Column, Standards, Accessories, LIMS), Service (Potency, Pesticides, Heavy Metal, Genetic Testing), End User (Lab, Pharmaceutical, Research) – Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cannabis-testing-market-46932450.html

6 – Hemp Business Journal – The CBD Report

https://www.hempbizjournal.com/the-cbd-report/

7 – Fox News (July 2017) – Nevada marijuana supply running low, state of emergency declared, governor says

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/11/nevada-marijuana-supply-running-low-state-emergency-declared-governor-says.html

8 – Fortune Magazine – Here’s Why Nevada’s Marijuana Supply Can’t Keep up with Sales

https://fortune.com/2017/07/12/nevada-marijuana-taxes-shortage/

9 – The Medicine Maker (June 2017) – Cannabis Complex

https://themedicinemaker.com/issues/0617/cannabis-complex/

Disclaimer: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. Americannewsgroup.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. (“MIQ”). MIQ has been paid a fee for Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. from the company direct of ten thousand canadian dollars, as well as two hundred and fifty thousand free trading shares of ATT.CN for advertising and digital media. There may be 3rd parties who may have shares of Abattis Bioceuticals Corp., and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this newsletter as the basis for any investment decision. We have no intentions of selling any shares within the next 72 hours of this publishing date (August 9, 2017), but reserve the right to buy and sell shares thereafter without any further notice.
While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between the any predictions and actual results. Always consult a real licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment

Analyst Review: Lithium, What Is It’s Uses And Why Has It Exploded In Popularity

by

The lightest known metal can also lighten your mood. Lithium, atomic number 3, is an element of many uses. It’s used in aircraft manufacture and in certain batteries. It’s also used in mental health: Lithium carbonate is a common treatment of bipolar disorder, helping to stabilize the wild mood swings caused by the illness.

Lithium has a flashy discovery story — literally. A Brazilian naturalist and statesman, Jozé Bonifácio de Andralda e Silva, discovered the mineral petalite (LiAISi4O10) on the Swedish isle Utö in the 1790s, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). The mineral is white to gray, but when thrown into fire, it flares bright crimson.

In 1817, Swedish chemist Johan August Arfvedson discovered that petalite contained a previously unknown element. He wasn’t able to isolate the metal entirely, but did isolate one of its salts. The name, lithium, is from “lithos,” the Greek for “stone.”

It took until 1855 for someone to isolate lithium: British chemist Augustus Matthiessen and German chemist Robert Bunsen ran a current through lithium chloride in order to separate the element.

Just the facts

According to the Jefferson National Linear Accelerator Laboratory, the properties of lithium are:

  • Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 3
  • Atomic symbol (on the Periodic Table of Elements): Li
  • Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 6.941
  • Density: 0.534 grams per cubic centimeter
  • Phase at room temperature: Solid
  • Melting point: 356.9 degrees Fahrenheit (180.5 degrees Celsius)
  • Boiling point:  2448 degrees Fahrenheit (1342 degrees Celsius)
  • Number of isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 10; 2 stable
  • Most common isotopes: Li-7 (92.41 percent natural abundance), Li-6 (7.59 percent natural abundance)

The lithium atom has three protons and three electrons.

The lithium atom has three protons and three electrons.

Credit: Boris15, Andrei Marincas Shutterstock

The brain on lithium

Lithium is a special metal in many ways. It’s light and soft — so soft that it can be cut with a kitchen knife and so low in density that it floats on water. It’s also solid at a wide range of temperatures, with one of the lowest melting points of all metals and a high boiling point.

Like its fellow alkali metal, sodium, lithium reacts with water in showy form. The combo of Li and H2O forms lithium hydroxide and hydrogen, which typically bursts into red flame.

Lithium makes up a mere 0.0007 percent of the Earth’s crust, according to the Jefferson Lab, and it’s only found locked up in minerals and salts. Those salts have the power to change the brain: lithium salts were the first drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat mania and depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Today, lithium carbonate is the compound most often sold as a pharmaceutical. Oddly, no one knows exactly how lithium works to stabilize mood. Studies show multiple effects on the nervous system. In 2008, for example, researchers reported in the journal Cell that lithium interrupts the activity of a receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine. It also appears to plump up brain volume, according to a 2011 study in the journal Biological Psychiatry (though this research is hotly contested).

Who knew?

  • Lithium-ion batteries are the key to lightweight, rechargeable power for laptops, phones and other digital devices. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Argentina and Chile increased their lithium production 15 percent each in 2014 alone to meet the growing demand. Worldwide, production jumped 6 percent that year.
  • The United States has one lithium mine, in Nevada, according to the USGS. Chile and Australia produce the most lithium in the world.
  • Naturally occurring lithium in drinking water correlates with lower levels of suicide, according to a 2009 study that highlights lithium’s role in the brain. But psychiatrists are careful about prescribing lithium in high doses, particularly because it can pass through the placenta and have unknown effects on the developing fetus.
  • Lithium was one of the three elements produced in large quantities in the Big Bang, according to physicists. The others were hydrogen and helium.

Current research

Lithium has a problem — or astrophysicists do. The amount of lithium that should have been produced in the Big Bang is about three times as high as actually seen in the oldest stars.

This discovery was first made in the 1980s, said Pasquale Serpico, a cosmologist at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Savoy Mont Blanc in France. It created a “tension,” Serpico said, between what the Big Bang data and the star observations were telling researchers about lithium’s abundance.

“The community started to look for possible loopholes or overlooked effects that might reconcile this tension,” Serpico told Live Science.

It’s a search that’s still going on. There are two basic possibilities, Serpico said: One is that scientists are missing something about the primordial conditions of the universe that would explain the absent lithium. This is a tough explanation to find. Researchers at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA), an underground accelerator in Italy, recently experimented with recreating the conditions of the Big Bang and found that the amounts of helium and hydrogen created matched with observations seen in the universe, while lithium stubbornly stayed too high. Lithium remains an outlier in an otherwise functional explanation for how the universe formed.

Another possibility is that there is a “new physics” explanation for the missing lithium in the universe today, Serpico said. In other words, the lithium was created in the expected amounts at the Big Bang, but something mysterious and unknown has been destroying it more rapidly than expected ever since.

“We just found out that a loophole in standard physics in the way people approximated the description of a standard physical phenomenon might make a new physics explanation less challenging,” Serpico said.

The researchers focused on a phenomenon common in the early days of the universe, when space was humming with energetic photons (light particles). Against these “hot” conditions, elementary particles, the building blocks of atoms, were born. Now, in a study published in March 2015 in the journal Physical Review Letters, Serpico and his colleagues have identified an overlooked sweet spot in this phenomenon. At a certain energy level, injecting new energetic photons into the mix efficiently destroys beryllium-7, the precursor to lithium-7, without affecting other nuclei. Those other nuclei remain at the same levels seen in the star observations. Suddenly, the potential for a Big Bang reaction with less lithium than previously expected starts to make sense.

“Now our problem is, is this just a curiosity, or can it be a viable mechanism?” Serpico said.

The question could be answered with probes such as NASA’s PIXIE mission, which aims to map the energy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background of the universe, which is the heat left over from the Big Bang, with unprecedented precision. Depending on the specific model, there is also hope that particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider or the proposed Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) project at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) could provide indirect hints, he said.

Three areas that could make early cannabis investors even richer

by

Photo: Testing, research and extraction technologies are one of three prime areas where the massive Cannabis boom is being felt immediately. We’ve singled out Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF) (CSE: ATT) as an example company that cannabis minded investors can get in on ahead of the crowd.

After what was easily the hottest year for cannabis stocks, expectations on the legal marijuana related sector are higher than ever.

Of the dozen main players in the space, the average marijuana stock is up 332% over the past year.1

What savvy investors are focussing on now is how this rapidly developing sector can support what looks to be massive growth into the future. Apart from the obvious legalization, three areas are emerging that will be critical in the bid to ensure the sector’s meteoric rise: Better Testing and Extraction, More Medical Uses and Ensuring Adequate Supplies.

Companies who can deliver on these promises stand to make Cannabis investors a lot of money.

One company that appears to be well situated to capitalize on the Research, Testing and Extraction segment is Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF), which we discuss below, along with a few other key players positioned for success.

The overall optimism led researchers at New Frontier Data to project that the cannabis industry will have created a whopping 283,422 jobs, grow to and generate $2.3 Billion in tax revenue—both by 2020.2

The same study predicted that the sector as a whole will grow to $24.1 Billion by 2025.

But in order to maintain the course in order to get to $24 Billion, companies will need to meet the demands of these three key developing areas:

– Our first and favorite sector may surprise you since it is not actually the cultivation, it’s going to be way bigger, and we’ve found a company that is widely undiscovered as noted below in our first example:

  1.  BETTER TESTING AND EXTRACTION

    Company: Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (CSE: ATT – OTCQB: ATTBF)

    Mkt Cap: $15.21M

    Still very early in its company’s story, Abattis has wisely burst onto the scene as a tester.  Wasting no time in getting its cannabis testing facility opened in Langley, BC, ahead of Canada’s full-scale legalization4 of cannabis expected by July 1, 2018, Abattis swiftly got itself into the game and already has garnered revenues.

    Abattis Bioceuticals’ subsidiary Northern Vine Labs opened its doors in May 2017, to serve the rising demand for cannabis testing. The company had been pursuing that license since 2014, and officially became licensed in October 2016.

    What is cannabis testing?

    In order to maintain quality control, and meet both regulatory, and market demands, cannabis laboratories test for potency, purity, and details such as terpene counts. Testing also protects the consumer by screening for contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals, and unapproved pesticides.

    (For more information on Health Canada’s mandatory testing on medical cannabis click here. )

    For the 52 licensed producers in Canada, Health Canada introduced random testing to address these issues. Abattis’s facility is just 1 of 30 approved facilities in Canada, and one of the eight in BC’s lower mainland. Even better, Abattis is the only company available on the public markets, making it a solid choice in this sector. Once recreational cannabis becomes available in mid-2018, everyone will have to use a facility like what Abattis already has a leg up on, so keep that in mind while the PPS is low here.

    “Abattis Bioceuticals is one of very few publicly listed companies with comprehensive testing and extraction capabilities. They are also one of only 30 Health Canada approved labs able to handle cannabis for all forms of testing.”

    Demand for cannabis testing is big and getting bigger fast.

    The global cannabis testing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%, culminating towards a $1.42 billion market by 2021.5

    In order to hit the shelves, producers will need to have an accurate depiction of the drug’s potency, including the levels of the most sought after medicinal components of cannabis, THC and CBD. To do that, even the mega producers will require a third party to test their product before it goes to market.

    Abattis is smartly staking itself as a leader in the testing field, having built a lab, and staffed it with industry experts to ensure the quality standard they promise the sector.

    The Northern Vine Labs facility will not just be used for testing, however. Another major component to the facility will be in extraction and formulation.

    This means that the company will be involved in innovation of methods to extract medicinal components from cannabis on a massive industrial scale, and to formulate them for consumer products.

    As a cooperative arm of the company to run in conjunction with Northern Vine Labs, Abattis has formed another subsidiary called Vergence, in order to market and sell natural, safe, and effective health products.

    Those products will target reducing pain caused from inflammation, boost immunity, and increase nutrient absorption. As natural remedies, these products will likely reach the market faster than a pharmaceutical product would, without the lengthy and costly clinical trials.

    According to the CBD Report published by The Hemp Business Journal, the US hemp-derived CBD market will total approximately $115 million this year, with an estimate to grow to $2.1 billion by 2020.6

    Abattis is tight-lipped about its ability to extract cannabinoids and terpenoids from cannabis at its facilities, however, it hasn’t been shy about hinting that it aims to be a leader in the extraction space. There’s a possibility that extraction will overtake testing as the company’s primary revenue model in the future.

     

  2.  MORE MEDICAL USES

    Company: Cara Therapeutics (CARA)

    Mkt Cap: $495M

    After a wild month that saw Cara Therapeutics rise to $26 per share, and plummeting to $12 per share within a week, this giant is on its way back to stardom.

    The bounce back came on the announcement of encouraging data from its phase 1 trials of oral CR845, as a treatment for pain and itching in patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis. All tested doses were well tolerated when administrated daily.

    This came as a relief for shareholders after they saw the value of the company drop upon the same drug’s treatment for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee. Lower doses achieved statistical significance. Only the highest dose received statistical significance. It’s still possible based on those results to test higher doses for significance.

    Medical marijuana sales, from pharmaceutical extracts to medically cultivated flowers, currently make up the lion’s share of the cannabis sector. Medical sales in 2017 are projected to grow to $5.3 billion in 2017, and account for 67% of total cannabis sales.2

    That means that medical cannabis patients are outspending adult-use consumers at a nearly 3 to 1 basis.

    While medical sales are projected to exceed $13.2 billion by 2020, the medical share of the total cannabis sales is expected to drop to 55% of all sales as well.

    Much of that has to do with the recreational legalization in larger states, like California, and in holiday states like Nevada.

    As cannabis stocks fly, the developers of new medicinal applications and products stand to make the most gains.

    While Cara fluctuated during its trials, new drug development was the reason that AXIM Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: AXIM) absolutely crushed it in 2016-17.

    As stated earlier, the average marijuana stock rose 332% over the last year.

    Much of that increase is skewed by the meteoric rise of AXIM Biotechnologies, whose year-over-year increase was 2,363%.

    You read that right.

    A large portion of that success can be attributed to the development of AXIM’s CanChew Plus Chewing Gum, used for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome—or IBS. Used as an alternative delivery system to inhalation, CanChew tapped into the act of chewing which bypasses the gastrointestinal system and improves the bioavailability of cannabinoids.3

    Because medical uses for cannabis are still in their infancy, there are plenty of repeatable AXIM-like stories out there yet to be told.

 

  1. ENSURING A SUPPLY CHAIN SURPLUS

          Aurora Cannabis – ACBFF, ACB

          Mkt Cap: $941.6M

Second only to Axim over the last year was top performer Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACBFF)(TSX: ACB), which grew 465% year-over-year, rising from a low of $0.30 to $2.59 and a market cap just a shade under a Billion, at $941.6 million.

The company’s well deserved move to the TSX from the TSX venture this week is a pat on the back for a solid year that included record yields at Aurora’s Mountain View County production facility, and on the anticipation of the opening of its 100,000+ kg Aurora Sky facility to be located near the Edmonton International Airport.

With the nearing completion of a third production facility in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Aurora’s production capacity is skyrocketing.

But supplies are still lagging in the market as a whole, especially after shelves emptied rapidly in Nevada after the state began adult-use sales on July 1.

Supply issues reached such dire levels, that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval had to issue a state of emergency to allow state officials to decide on new rules to ease the shortage.7

As Canada (where Aurora is headquartered) inches closer to nation-wide marijuana legalization, it’s doubtful that the country will encounter the same scale of supply problems that hit Nevada.8 Especially with massive production coming from companies such as Aurora.

With other major Canadian producers, such as Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) growing for both the North American and German markets, it’ll be interesting to see how supplies meet demand on a global scale.

CAPTURING THE TREND

Cannabis has still not been registered as a medicine in any country, and only a small number of cannabinoid medicines have reached the market.

With over 100 cannabinoids, and over 700 other compounds such as flavonoids and terpenes, the cannabis plant is still barely understood, as the legality over researching it, and testing its benefits has provided hurdles until recently.9

Hence the need for new, better and more abundant research and testing capabilities to keep pace with the industry’s growth.

“In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.”

Public perception of the drug has changed significantly over the past decade, with it being seen more favorably than ever.

According to a survey2 done by New Frontier Data and Full Circle Research this January, 55% of respondents believed “cannabis should be legalized, regulated and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol”, and an additional 26% believed it should at least be “legal for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation.”

In fact, only 9% responded that cannabis should be illegal. Overall, 63% of those surveyed believed that the federal government should legalize cannabis, and 86% believed it has valid medical uses.

In 2016, 4 out of the 5 US states that voted on adult-use of cannabis passed legalization initiatives, with an average adult-use vote of 53% in favour. And all 4 states that voted on medical use passed their initiatives, with an average medical use vote of 62%.

For those that still hold doubt to the growth potential of the cannabis sector, there’s really nothing that will convince you. Sales are growing significantly for retailers, even as more retailers hit the scene.

In order to maintain this growth pattern, industry players will need to provide the market with More Medical Uses, Better Testing and Extraction, and to Ensure Supplies.

If, as all of the indicators suggest, the industry continues on its staggering growth, the opportunity to take advantage of the emerging trends is here, now. The benefactors of the impact like Abattis Bioceuticals, stand to make huge gains, while the leaders like Aurora Cannabis and Axim can build an even bigger lead against competitors who must surely emerge.

 

For American News Group

By G. Joel Chury

Edited by; American News Group Editorial Staff

 

FOOTNOTES:

1 – Motley Fool (July 2017) – The Average Marijuana Stock is up 332% over the past year

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/24/the-average-marijuana-stock-is-up-332-over-the-tra.aspx?yptr=yahoo

2 – New Frontier Data – The Cannabis Industry Annual Report: 2017 Legal Marijuana Outlook

https://newfrontierdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CIAR_Webinar_FINAL.pdf

3 – YAHOO! Finance – AXIM Biotech: Cannabinoid Potential Worth the Complexity

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/axim-biotech-cannabinoid-potential-worth-130000914.html

4 – Toronto Star – Trudeau government to legalize marijuana by Canada Day 2018: reports

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/26/trudeau-government-to-legalize-marijuana-by-canada-day-2018-reports.html

5 – Markets and Markets (March 2017) – Cannabis Testing Market by Product & Software (LC, GC, Spectroscopy (MS, Atomic), Column, Standards, Accessories, LIMS), Service (Potency, Pesticides, Heavy Metal, Genetic Testing), End User (Lab, Pharmaceutical, Research) – Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cannabis-testing-market-46932450.html

6 – Hemp Business Journal – The CBD Report

https://www.hempbizjournal.com/the-cbd-report/

7 – Fox News (July 2017) – Nevada marijuana supply running low, state of emergency declared, governor says

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/11/nevada-marijuana-supply-running-low-state-emergency-declared-governor-says.html

8 – Fortune Magazine – Here’s Why Nevada’s Marijuana Supply Can’t Keep up with Sales

https://fortune.com/2017/07/12/nevada-marijuana-taxes-shortage/

9 – The Medicine Maker (June 2017) – Cannabis Complex

https://themedicinemaker.com/issues/0617/cannabis-complex/

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The Demand For Lithium Outweighs The Supply

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As the demand for lithium for storage batteries increases, it has created pressures on the lithium mining and processing sector. No one was prepared for the demand as electric car sales went from near zero a decade ago to over half-a-million last year.

The battery in Elon Musk’s Tesla Model S uses 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of lithium carbonate, and this is just one model and one car manufacturer’s battery. Worldwide, that figure can reach into the hundreds of thousands of tons of the metal.

And even though there is plenty of lithium around, the emerging problem is having enough capacity to process it. Lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles use lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, but most of the time, industry refers to the two in terms of lithium carbonate equivalent, which contains both of them.

Where is lithium found?

There are two major types of lithium deposits in the world. One is a hard rock as found in Australia, for which ready-to- go capacity to produce battery grade lithium can take up to three years. Lithium in Chile and Argentina is found as a brine, and the time to produce a battery-grade lithium can take up to seven years. China has reserves of both types of the mineral.

As a matter of fact, it has been estimated that by the year 2025, the world will need to be producing 785,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent a year, and that will be a 26,000-ton shortfall, compared to the 217,000 tons of demand versus 227,000 tons of supply this year, according to Roskill Consultants Group.

And despite Musk’s Gigafactory here in the U.S. and others globally in operation or being planned, the market from top to bottom is still dominated by Asia, with Roskill predicting China, Japan and Korea could account for 70 percent of consumption by 2025.

Investment in new lithium projects

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the mining boom in lithium was becoming somewhat like the oil boom of the 1960s and 1970s. Simon Moores, managing director of Benchmark Mineral, while talking to Bloomberg by phone said, “There are serious companies investing and people are starting to lock up the biggest, long-life resources. The question is — who’s next?”

“We estimate the lithium industry is going to need between $4-$5 billion of investment out to 2025,” said Moores. Benchmark Minerals Intelligence is a price data collection, and assessment company specializing in the lithium ion battery supply chain.

Benchmark is forecasting lithium carbonate will average $13,000 a ton over the 2017-2020 period from around $9,000 a ton in 2015-2016. However, with the demand for lithium hydroxide being greater because it gives greater battery capacity and longer life, prices are expected to jump from the current $14,000 a ton to over $18,000 a ton between 2017 and 2020.

So what is the bottom line here? Wood Mackenzie consultant James Whiteside, in discussing some of the start-up problems being encountered with small companies, cited Australia’s Orocobre, which planned to produce 17,500 tons a year of lithium carbonate at its Olaroz facility in Argentina.

They ran into problems with the weather and with pump glitches that threw them 21 percent below their initial target through June of this year. And while they are getting back on track, Whiteside said Orocobre’s difficulties are typical of many smaller operators. He also noted that the facility was the first new brine operation in 20 years.

“Because the number of brine operations has been so few historically, there are very few technically experienced chemical engineers to assist these junior companies,” he said. And this is the whole message in a nut-shell, the technology has to be addressed and updated if the world is to continue its move toward zero-carbon emissions.