Amarantus Acquires Majority
Interest in CBD Wellness Company Hempori
- Strong customer retention at both stores in Dallas,
TX with growing online presence
- Focus on delivering wellness solutions by
engaging customers to participate in clinical studies and provide
outcomes data to determine utility of branded CBD
products
- Order placed for hemp smokes to begin tobacco smoking
cessation program
New York, NY and Dallas, TX -- January 30, 2020 -- InvestorsHub
NewsWire -- Amarantus
Bioscience Holdings, Inc. (OTC
Pink: AMBS)
(“Amarantus,” or AMBS), a biotechnology holding company
pursuing proprietary therapeutics and diagnostics through its
subsidiaries, today announced that it has acquired a controlling
interest in Hempori,
Inc., a CBD wellness retailer in Dallas, TX with 2
stores and a growing physical and online presence. Concurrent with
this announcement, Hempori has placed an initial purchase order for
hemp smokes from Emerald Organic Products, Inc. (OTCPK: EMOR), an
Amarantus partner. Amarantus intends to evaluate a smoking
cessation program, with an initial focus of getting feedback on the
hemp smokable products from customers who are actively seeking to
reduce, or cease, chronic use of cigarettes and/or e-cigarettes
“We are very pleased to have come to an agreement to acquire a
controlling interest in Hempori after over a year of due
diligence,” said Gerald Commissiong, President & CEO of
Amarantus. “We began following Hempori right before they opened
their first retail store in December 2018, and have been thoroughly
impressed with the attention to detail and care with which Hempori
manages its customers. We believe much of the value in the CBD
space resides in consumer-facing operations, and that the majority
of CBD users have some medical condition for which they are seeking
wellness solutions. As such, we believe the concept of
health-focused CBD wellness centers fits squarely into the emerging
health and wellness landscape. We intend to work closely with
partners to optimize the Hempori experience and expand its
footprint regionally and across the United States. Amarantus will
work closely with Hempori to put Amarantus’ clinical trial and
FDA-related experience to work in order to position Hempori as a
brand distribution leader in the CBD wellness solutions space for
customers with medical problems.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Amarantus is issuing 25
million shares to Hempori in exchange for 51% of the outstanding
shares of Hempori, and was granted an option to acquire the
remaining shares from the existing shareholders until December 31,
2020 for additional common stock of Amarantus, or of a successor
entity in the event Amarantus is acquired prior to year-end 2020.
Hempori generated over $350,000 from its 2 storefronts in fiscal
year 2019.
“We are excited to partner with Amarantus who shares a similar
vision for helping customers from diverse medical backgrounds find
solutions, and capturing the data in a way that may potentially
ultimately allow us to make claims that will provide our products
with a marketing advantage,” said Grant Magers, MBA, CEO of
Hempori. “The time to bring CBD to the masses is now, and we have
been focused on providing a top notch customer experience that has
led to very high repeat customer rate, with the focus being on
education on how to use the our products based upon consumer
feedback. This iterative process is the only way to gain a true
understanding of how CBD can potentially benefit people, allowing
us to establish real-world evidence on which to base future
clinical trials that show potential benefit of our products in
specific medical conditions. The initial focus on smoking cessation
is due to significant inbound demand from customers.”
Five Key Conclusions from recent Surgeon General report on
Tobacco Smoking Cessation:
1. Smoking cessation is
beneficial at any age. Smoking cessation improves health status and
enhances quality of life.
2. Smoking cessation reduces
the risk of premature death and can add as much as a decade to life
expectancy.
3. Smoking places a substantial
financial burden on smokers, healthcare systems, and society.
Smoking cessation reduces this burden, including smoking
attributable healthcare expenditures.
4. Smoking cessation reduces
risk for many adverse health effects, including reproductive health
outcomes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, and cancer. Quitting smoking is also beneficial to those
who have been diagnosed with heart disease and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease.
5. More than three out of five
U.S. adults who have ever smoked cigarettes have quit. Although a
majority of cigarette smokers make a quit attempt each year, less
than one-third use cessation medications approved by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration or behavioral counseling to support quit
attempts.
NBC News recently provided a summary on this report that
is available at https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/e-cigarettes-lead-people-start-smoking-surgeon-general-says-n1121361 .
About Tobacco, Smoking Cessation and E-
Cigarettes
The global tobacco market is expected to grow from
USD 689.4 Billion in 2018 to USD 934.5 Billion by 2026 at a CAGR of
3.9% during the forecast period from 2019-2026. Rising use
of automated techniques in manufacturing tobacco products and
online retailing is further propelling the growth are the two
factors affecting the demand of the market.
Smoking cessation (also known as quitting smoking or simply
quitting) is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco
smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause
dependence. Nicotine withdrawal makes the process of quitting often
difficult. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable
disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than
480,000 deaths every year, or about 1 in 5 deaths, and more than
$300 billion in healthcare costs. Seventy percent of smokers would
like to quit smoking, and 50 percent report attempting to quit
within the past year. Tobacco cessation significantly reduces the
risk of dying from tobacco-related diseases such as coronary heart
disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung
cancer. Due to its link to many chronic diseases, cigarette smoking
has been restricted in many public areas. In nicotine-dependent
smokers, quitting smoking can lead to symptoms of nicotine
withdrawal such as nicotine cravings, anxiety, irritability,
depression, and weight gain. Professional smoking cessation support
methods generally attempt to address nicotine withdrawal symptoms
to help the client break free of nicotine addiction.
E-cigarettes containing nicotine aren't considered safe for
adolescents, young adults or pregnant women. Nicotine can harm
brain development in children and young adults into their early 20s
and is toxic to developing fetuses. Children and adults have also
been poisoned by swallowing, breathing or absorbing e-cigarette
liquid through their skin or eyes, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. In youth and adult nonsmokers,
e-cigarette use also poses the risk of a nicotine addiction. This
could lead to long-term use of e-cigarettes, the effects of which
aren't known, or to the use of traditional cigarettes. Research has
shown that teen use of e-cigarettes is on the rise and associated
with increased future use of traditional cigarettes. Rarely,
e-cigarettes can cause severe harm. Defective e-cigarette batteries
have caused fires and explosions, mostly while the batteries are
being charged.
About Hempori
The Hempori brand is active in the Hemp industry and has over 75
products that are sold in its own stores in Dallas, Texas and
online via Hempori.com. Hempori has developed unique
proprietary products in the Hemp industry and is actively engaged
with researchers to gather data regarding the utility of its
products.
About Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc.
Amarantus Bioscience Holdings (AMBS)
is a JLABS alumnus biotechnology company developing treatments and
diagnostics for diseases in the areas of neurology, regenerative
medicine and orphan diseases through its subsidiaries.
Diagnostics
The Company‘s 80.01%-owned
subsidiary Breakthrough Diagnostics,
Inc., currently a joint venture
with Todos Medical, Ltd. has licensed intellectual property rights
to the Alzheimer’s blood diagnostic LymPro Test ® from Leipzig
University that was originally developed by Dr. Thomas Arendt, as
well as certain rights to multiple sclerosis diagnostic MSPrecise™
and Parkinson’s diagnostic NuroPro. Amarantus entered into a joint
venture agreement with Todos Medical, Ltd. (OTCQB:
TOMDF) to advance the diagnostic assets, and Todos
has exercised its exclusive option to acquire Amarantus’ remaining
ownership in Breakthrough in exchange for approximately 49%
ownership of Todos. The transaction is expected to close in the
frist half of 2020. Amarantus also owns approximately 30% of the
common shares of Avant Diagnostics,
Inc, a tumor analysis company developing
Theralink®, the proprietary phosphoprotein tumor analysis platform
run using reverse phase protein array (RPPA) platform.
Therapeutics
AMBS’ 50.1%-owned subsidiary Elto Pharma,
Inc. has development rights to eltoprazine, a
Phase 2b-ready small molecule indicated for Parkinson's disease
levodopa-induced dyskinesia, Alzheimer’s aggression and adult
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD.
AMBS acquired Cutanogen
Corporation from Lonza Group in 2015 and
currently owns 90.1% of that subsidiary. Cutanogen is preparing for
pivotal studies with Engineered Skin Substitute (ESS) for the
treatment of pediatric life-threatening severe burns. ESS is a
regenerative medicine-based, autologous full-thickness skin graft
technology originally developed by the Shriner’s Hospital that can
be used to treat severe burns, as well as several other
catastrophic and cosmetic dermatological indications. AMBS’
wholly-owned subsidiary, MANF Therapeutics
Inc. owns key intellectual property rights
and licenses from a number of prominent universities related to the
development of the therapeutic protein known as mesencephalic
astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (“MANF”). MANF Therapeutics
is developing MANF-based products as treatments for
ophthalmological disorders such as Wolfram Syndrome, Retinitis
Pigmentosa and Glaucoma, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such
as Parkinson’s disease. MANF was discovered by the Company’s Chief
Scientific Officer John Commissiong, PhD. Dr. Commissiong
discovered MANF from AMBS’ proprietary discovery engine PhenoGuard,
and believes several other neurotrophic factors remain to be
discovered. MANF and ESS have been licensed to Emerald Organic
Products, Inc.
For further information please visit www.Amarantus.com,
or connect with the Amarantus
on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.
Amarantus Investor and Media Contact:
Gerald Commissiong
President & CEO
Office: 650-862-5391
Email: gerald@amarantus.com
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This letter contains forward-looking statements, about the
Company’s expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among
other things, its product development efforts, business, financial
condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of
forward-looking words such as “believe,” “expect,” “intend,”
“plan,” “may,” “should” or “anticipate” or their negatives or other
variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact
that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or
current matters. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated
or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date
they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters
that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject
to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by
the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause actual
activities or results to differ materially from the activities and
results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including,
but not limited to, the factors summarized in the filings with the
SEC. Amarantus does not undertake any obligation to
publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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