• American Cancer Society annual report shows largest single-year drop in cancer deaths ever reported
• Doctors attribute precision medicine with playing significant role in decline
• POAI leading player in precision medicine, initiated groundbreaking Cancer Quest 2020 project

A new American Cancer Society report bodes well for Predictive Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: POAI), a company focused on applying artificial intelligence to help equip players in personalized medicine and drug discovery. American Cancer Society’s annual ‘Facts & Figures 2020’ report shows the largest single-year drop in cancer deaths ever reported (http://ibn.fm/1d3lE). The 2.2% drop occurred from 2016 to 2017, the most recent year for which complete data is available.

The report notes that the decline in deaths from lung cancer drove the record drop, and that the decline was driven in large part by precision medicine. While lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death, deaths from lung cancer have declined by 51% from 1990 to 2017 among men and 26% from 2002 to 2017 among women. In response to the report, doctors at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer in Buffalo, New York, attribute precision medicine with playing a significant role in the decline (http://ibn.fm/14kPm).

Roswell Park’s Dr. Carl Morrison described the impact that precision medicine has had on the health industry’s fight against cancer. For example, there are at least 10 to 15 subtypes of lung cancers that doctors can treat now, which patients couldn’t receive treatment for previously. “Ten years ago, you stopped at that diagnosis,” Morrison said in an article. “Today you don’t. No longer can you just use the word lung cancer. You have to clarify what types of lung cancer it is, and then when you know what type of lung cancer it is, you know what specific therapy that you can treat that lung cancer with and that is in essence, precision medicine.”

As precision medicine continues to be embraced by the health community, Predictive Oncology’s database shows potential to fill a critical void: equipping oncological and pharmaceutical industries with tools to help fight ovarian cancer – a notoriously fast-moving and aggressive cancer type. Last year, POAI initiated its Cancer Quest 2020 project, which includes sequencing ovarian cancers and building the largest ovarian cancer multi-omic database in the world. Through this project, the company hopes to provide the pharmaceutical industry critical tools to help speed up the development of new drugs and provide more personalized and effective therapeutic choices.

Predictive Oncology’s subsidiary, Helomics, is playing a key role in the groundbreaking project. Helomics currently has an estimated 150,000 cases on its molecular information platform – 38,000 of which are specific to ovarian cancer. This invaluable scientific asset positions POAI as a leader in providing the critical molecular information needed for more effective patient treatments and new drug discovery in a much timelier manner than others in the precision-medicine space.

As part of the Cancer Quest 2020 project, Predictive Oncology has also signed a collaborative agreement with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)-Magee Women’s Hospital to establish a data- and artificial-intelligence-driven approach to treating ovarian cancer. Based on the agreement, the partnership is designed to validate the significant value of using AI-powered decision-making for identifying specific treatments on specific genotypes to help oncologists predict clinical outcomes for ovarian cancer patients.

Helomics has begun sequencing retrospective ovarian cancer cases from the UPMC-Magee collaboration and analyzing the mutations in the tumor (genome) and the expression of genes (transcriptome) in order to build a comprehensive multi-omic picture of the tumor. That information can then be brought together with Helomics’ data set of drug-response profiles to build an AI-driven predictive model of ovarian cancer. This disruptive work is designed to lead to continued drops in cancer deaths of all types.

Predictive Oncology began as a joint venture between Skyline Medical, another of POIA’s subsidiaries, and Helomics. The company is ideally positioned to harness the power of artificial intelligence and work with the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotech industries to develop highly customizable assessment methods for cancer patients.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Predictive-Oncology.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to POAI are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/POAI

• Merger with Pura Vida Health seen as mutually beneficial for both players in the CBD health and wellness space
• EMOR’s Pura Vida business plan allows the company to achieve full vertical integration
• The company promises quality control of CBD product offerings, from seed to shelf

Emerald Organic Products Inc. (OTC: EMOR), a diversified cannabidiol (CBD)-focused health sciences company, recently announced the completion of a definitive plan to merge with Pura Vida Health LLC, a health and wellness company focused on using natural ingredients – including the increasingly desired CBD – to help customers achieve optimal health. This mutually beneficial merger is expected to allow Pura Vida to become a flagship brand for Emerald Organic Products and position the former for maximum market penetration, with the help of EMOR’s proven track record in product branding and sales.

“We believe in the all-star team we put together, we have proven experts in cannabis, hemp, CBD,” Pura Vida CEO and Executive Chairman Matt Dill stated in a news release (http://ibn.fm/tfRrQ). “I am talking all phases: planting, farming, extracting, the whole way, fully vertical.” Commenting on how his company will benefit from the alignment with Emerald Organic Products, he noted, “Add a group of professionals with a track record of successful branding of products, hundreds of millions in sales, [it’s] very exciting.”

Pura Vida is focused on bringing products to market that are engineered to help people live their healthiest lives. The company is committed to providing the highest quality products using natural ingredients and third-party testing (http://ibn.fm/j5YKm). Coupling Pura Vida’s insistence on quality with EMOR’s marketing muscle is expected to lend the combined firm an advantageous position in the burgeoning industry.

Based out of New York, Emerald Organics Products plans to market its recently commercialized line of vitamins and supplements both across the nation and in certain foreign countries. Its Pura Vida business plan will allow it to achieve full vertical integration – ensuring absolute quality control, from seed to shelf. The process includes careful monitoring of hemp growth and CBD extraction and following the product through manufacturing and production at its facilities in Oregon and New York, respectively. By overseeing each stage, Emerald Organics Products will be one step closer to its goal of ‘leading the hemp revolution’ (http://ibn.fm/lWjJt).

Creating a symbiotic relationship between the two companies, the merger comes at an opportune time. According to Grand View Research, the global cannabidiol market was valued at $4.6 billion in 2018 and is forecast to experience an impressive CAGR of 22.2% through 2025 (http://ibn.fm/PS3WC). In the health and wellness industry, there is particularly high demand for products infused with CBD due to its healing properties, including its efficacy in treating anxiety, depression and stress; its mitigation of cancer symptoms; and other applications. As government legalization and approval continue to roll through North America, the potential for companies bringing CBD offerings to market is also anticipated to grow.

Emerald Organic Products Inc. is engaged in the development of vitamins and supplements with cannabidiol (CBD) health and wellness products. The hemp-based proprietary Pura Vida CBD products include CBD vitamins, chewable CBD gummies and gummy bears, vaporization CBD liquids, drinks, CBD tinctures, CBD cosmetics and others.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Emerald-Organic.com

• Xalles Holdings is developing its fintech network to embrace technological solutions for a new era, including anticipated needs of the cryptocurrency alt coin trading sector
• Cryptocurrency market watchers are anticipating a new round of volatility during the coming spring as the newest round of bitcoin “halving” occurs, creating opportunity for a powerful crypto trading engine to generate confidence in quick transactions
• The company is also anticipating new revenue as it delivers a new X2X software platform for reconciling financial transactions in business and government payment applications

With the dawn of a new decade now upon us, market watchers are preparing for a new round of volatility in cryptocurrencies as bitcoin, the most popular of all the alt coins established as a free-trade bankless monetary system, undergoes a new round of “halving” that cuts creation of the cryptocurrency by 50 percent. The automated halving process is expected to occur sometime in May 2020 to control inflation, and is further expected to send the cryptocurrency through sharp price increases as well as sharp drops in its value (http://ibn.fm/ndbfl).

Fintech holding company Xalles Holdings Inc. (OTC: XALL) has been positioning itself as a strong player in the crypto and blockchain realms, readying its partner’s cryptocurrency trading engine that nimbly facilitates fast and efficient cryptocurrency transactions to give traders a measure of confidence if they intend to ride out the market’s volatility.

Alt coins arose as something of a libertarian effort for people to securely network financially with one another through the blockchain’s immutable ledge system without a fiat system’s oversight, but a variety of frauds and untimely deaths have exhibited the risks inherent to such an enterprise. The ability to quickly complete trades helps value holders to mitigate some of those risks.

When Argentina’s central bank attempted to put a limit on how many U.S. dollars its citizens could buy on the currency exchange markets in October to fight inflationary trends, it drove many people to buy bitcoin instead in protest of government controls on their finances (http://ibn.fm/CE8wf).

Xalles is chiefly devoted to providing a diverse number of payment transaction consulting solutions to government entities, businesses and individual consumers. The company’s revenues are obtained through a share of the till when clients establish a financial transaction toll gate, according to an interview with the company’s CEO, Thomas Nash (http://ibn.fm/Br6XD).

Xalles’ revenue-sharing agreement with All the Numbers Trading Company, LLC (ATN Trading) to develop a cryptocurrency engine similar to the automated “bots” used by experts in the stock market is an example of its work with partners to roll out innovations. Under the agreement, Xalles will ensure the distribution of the tech solution to a large community of traders among its contacts and within its client base.

“After months of testing ATN Trading’s system, we are highly impressed with the results; it exceeded our expectations,” Nash stated when the agreement was announced in September (http://ibn.fm/aWk4H). “We selected ATN Trading as our revenue sharing partner because of the integrity of the platform and its unique pricing model. This as an excellent opportunity for us to profitably participate in the cryptocurrency investment market segment.”

Xalles is also nearing development completion of its blockchain-based solution for business and government payments and post-payment auditing. The solution, dubbed the X2X system, will facilitate financial transaction reconciliation and is expected to generate revenue when it is deployed during the coming year.

Digital technology innovator Accenture reported recently in its ‘Workforce 2025: The Financial Services Skills & Roles of the Future’ study that financial services companies in North America could gain up to $140 billion in productivity improvements and cost savings by 2025 if they adequately integrate new technologies for making their workforces more efficient (http://ibn.fm/gGl3j).

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Xalles.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to XALL are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/XALL

• The traditional digital media model was broken; Jerrick built a new one
• Jerrick’s proprietary Vocal platform gives content creators powerful storytelling, money-making, audience-building tools
• With over 500,000 Vocal creators and 8 million monthly visitors, Jerrick’s market penetration still in its early stages

In today’s digital world, demand for user-generated content is soaring. Every minute on the Internet, more than 4 million videos are viewed on YouTube. In that same minute, 1,440 WordPress posts are published, 481,000 tweets are sent, and 174,000 Instagram posts are viewed. These numbers are expected to only continue to rise. Jerrick Media Holdings Inc. (OTC: JMDA) empowers creators with Vocal, a platform strategically designed to drive value for the virtually infinite number of digital content creators.

Jerrick is a holding company focused on developing technology-based solutions. The company pursues a simple, straightforward mission: to provide creators with the technology and resources to get discovered and earn money to fund their creativity. The company achieves this mission through Vocal, its proprietary longform publishing platform equipped with storytelling tools and engaged communities for content creators of all kinds.

Early on, Jerrick recognized the problems associated with the traditional digital media model. The company identified systemic flaws and threats inherent in the digital media industry, including limited paths to profitability, high content creation costs, excessive traffic requirements to monetize, compressing margins on display advertising, and high marketing and general operational expenses.

“The traditional digital media model was broken,” the company notes in its corporate overview (http://ibn.fm/VfE5i). “So we built a new one.”

When Jerrick set out to build its proprietary technology – together with its development partner, Thinkmill – the focus was first and foremost on building a platform ecosystem that would generate revenues for all platform stakeholders through a sustainable and scalable business model. Jerrick’s business model is predicated on partnership with Vocal creators, and, as referenced in their corporate overview, “features numerous revenue touch-points throughout the Vocal ecosystem, ensuring a balanced portfolio of revenue streams, sustainable infrastructures, and compounding scalability.”

Further, Jerrick’s technology is optimized for scale and built to support future development, utilizing its first-party behavioral data to continually improve the experience for creators. “Vocal’s proprietary technology can seamlessly absorb a nearly endless supply of external assets, allowing for opportunities to revive distressed media content at a fraction of its original cost and with limited increase to Jerrick’s operational expenses,” the company’s corporate overview notes.

Vocal provides digital creators of every kind – from artists to writers, musicians, entrepreneurs, and more – with powerful storytelling tools and engaged genre-specific communities. Using Vocal, content creators benefit from access to a built-in engaged audience as well as monetization opportunities (from reads and tips). Vocal also touts a safe and curated environment, which is a tremendous value proposition for creators. This safety is also attractive to the brands partnering with Vocal for Brands, Jerrick’s creative studio that partners brands with creators to product authentic brand content to build affinity, trust, and drive conversions.

“Vocal is a technology platform that is of a caliber associated with only a few hundred other digital platforms,” Jerrick CEO Jeremy Frommer stated in a weekly review (http://ibn.fm/G1zOi), adding that Vocal has grown into one of the top online creator platforms. As of January 2020, approximately 400-500 creators join the platform every day, with approximately 5-10% of those upgrading to Vocal+ (http://ibn.fm/lG78z) – the company’s premium subscription membership program – within a week.

Jerrick Media Holdings is focused on the development of digital communities, targeted marketing of branded digital content and e-commerce opportunities. To accomplish these objectives, Jerrick envisions, designs and builds modern technology companies that redefine how people interact with technology. As the parent company of Vocal, Jerrick has built and shipped products that have influenced millions of people worldwide.

To view Jerrick’s 2020 Corporate Overview, visit http://ibn.fm/WxJIj

For more information, visit the company’s website at https://Jerrick.media

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to JMDA are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/JMDA

• Consumers are becoming more interested in cryptocurrency and alternative methods of payment
• Recent revenue sharing partnership will allow the company to provide its customers access to ATN Trading’s a fast and efficiency crypto trading engine
• Xalles was among the first providers of payment and financial transaction management solutions through proprietary blockchain-based X2X technology

As the cryptocurrency sector is expanding and there is growing demand and interest in crypto payment solutions, fintech holding company Xalles Holdings Inc. (OTC: XALL) is intent on becoming the go-to option on the automated cryptocurrency trading market while making trading and related services more accessible to clients of any size.

A growing number of banks are developing cryptocurrency strategies as Federal Reserve interest rates plummet. Fiat money is very vulnerable to centralized bank control, which paints a good picture for a decentralized system such as Bitcoin, which are not susceptible to direct influence by bankers and governments (http://ibn.fm/Hx6xZ).

In addition, more and more consumers are interested in cryptocurrency and other alternative payment methods. About 75 percent of respondents in a Global Payments Insight Study by ACI Worldwide and Ovum said consumers want a broader choice of payment tools, prompting companies to consider investing in this area, and mobile payment systems in general are expected to grow in popularity and will become less dependent on fiat currencies, according to Business Insider Intelligence. Among the consequences of this is that non-cash transactions will surpass one trillion by 2023 (http://ibn.fm/x7Y0c).

Xalles Holdings is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these new market opportunities and emerge as a reputed provider of automated crypto trading options. The company’s recent partnership with All The Numbers Trading Company, LLC (d/b/a ATN Trading) to enhance distribution of the latter’s powerful crypto trading solution is the first major step in this direction. The agreement signed between ATN Trading and Xalles Holdings’ wholly owned subsidiary Xalles Financial Services Inc. provides that the companies will share revenue resulting from the distribution of ATN’s crypto trading engine (http://ibn.fm/Q2cj6).

Under the agreement, Xalles will distribute the crypto trading engine to a large community of traders among its contacts and within its client base of expert traders and institutional firms. Customers will be able to connect their Coinbase or Binance accounts to ATN’s automated cryptocurrency trading engine to trade a vast number of many currencies and will not be required to pay a fee if they don’t make a profit. The ATN trading system offers quick and efficient trading, thus addressing one of the largest issues with cryptocurrencies – their relatively high volatility as they are traded 24/7, making fast trading crucial for profitability and success.

The agreement is also an excellent opportunity for Xalles to profitably participate in the cryptocurrency investment market while also advancing the company’s plans to make cryptocurrency trading and other related services more accessible to clients for large and small traders.

Xalles Holdings’ business plan focuses on business, consumer, and government-oriented payment and financial reconciliation transactions. Xalles is building technology that supports payment exchange, audits, and new business models and opportunities all over the world by combining the blockchain decentralized financial ledger platform with the company’s existing, state-of-the-art transaction reconciliation system design. Xalles will launch new reward systems and services card and mobile payment and will expand the technology offerings for e-commerce engines and referral marketing.

Xalles was among the first providers of payment and financial transaction management solutions through proprietary blockchain-based X2X technology. One of these solutions is the IFS (Investment and Financing System), which provides links to Xalles’ Financial Transaction Reconciliation (FTR) solution, supports complex investment structures, assists international investment corporations, and more.

Always on the lookout for fintech growth and acquisition opportunities, Xalles Holdings aims to become the main payment system provider in strategic partner solutions. The company devises customized approaches to help companies enhance their market presence and achieve success in their financial transaction system offerings by providing various levels of investment services and funds, including blockchain and other technologies for payments, e-commerce, payment-auditing solutions and financial reconciliation.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Xalles.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to XALL are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/XALL

• Growing interest in the company’s innovative DehydraTECH™ drug delivery platform from large global corporations
• Lexaria’s strategy to be listed on a nationally recognized U.S. exchange will help the company access a significantly larger audience of investors
• Lexaria has 16 patents with another 60 pending worldwide and is the only company to hold a patent for improved delivery of all non-psychoactive cannabinoids

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP), a global innovator in drug-delivery platforms, has achieved virtually everything it set out to do in 2019 and has even bigger plans for 2020 that include achieving higher revenue and being listed on a major U.S. exchange, according to CEO Chris Bunka in a strategic update to shareholders (http://ibn.fm/zA8bd). While its shares remain “dramatically undervalued” at the moment, Bunka said, the company boasts a successful 2019 during which it signed different partnerships and agreements for use of its innovative DehydraTECH™ drug delivery platform.

The revolutionary drug delivery platform accelerates human intestinal cell absorption of bioactive substances administered without the need for inhalational dosing, co-administration with sugars or sweeteners, and other unhealthy practices. It is applicable to a wide variety of bioactive substances, including cannabis and nicotine. The innovative technology makes it possible to deliver bioactive substances via oral ingestion bypassing potentially unhealthy and unsafe practices. It has been shown to accelerate CBD absorption by 499 percent and achieve a CBD blood concentration 319 percent higher than traditional formulation.

The company developed its platform based on recognition of the fact that inhalation poses certain risks. Edible ingestion makes it possible to absorb a substance in a healthier and safer way. The platform has also been proven to deliver up to 10 times more of active ingredients in comparison to traditional edibles. DehydraTECH™ is the first platform of its kind that allows users to access the primary benefits of inhalation – speed and efficiency – while circumventing the risks of inhalation.

Lexaria Bioscience currently has 16 patents granted and more than 60 patent applications worldwide and is the only company to hold a patent for improved delivery of all cannabinoids and nicotine. According to Bunka, one of the company’s biggest achievements in 2019 was receiving the first ever patents to use DehydraTECH™ with cannabinoids for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and heart disease, in Australia. Lexaria is working to gain fast-track patent status for the same health conditions in the U.S. this year, which will allow the company to achieve one of its goals for 2020 – developing relationships in the pharmaceutical industry, as well.

In 2019, the company also finalized a new contractual relationship with a GMP-certified, FDA registered production company to get enhanced DehydraTECH™ powders to market in the U.S. with current capacity of roughly 200,000 servings per day. According to Bunka, this can increase to 400,000 servings per day within the same facility. “Lexaria is experiencing strong demand from many companies requesting pre-processed DehydraTECH-enhanced bulk powders for their specific product lines and with this facility, we can meet that demand,” he said in a news release.

In 2020, the company expects to more than double its entire 2019 revenue from existing clients in the context of a projected sustainable revenue growth all throughout the year and beyond by leveraging a rich pipeline of prospective additional clients to be onboarded the following months, Bunka explained. “One of our existing U.S. clients is embarking on an aggressive growth strategy from their home state to several additional states within the next year. Another existing U.S. client is in the next 90 days launching their bottled beverage with CBD and DehydraTECH technology within, generating first-ever revenue for Lexaria during Q1,” Bunka continued.

This revenue increase will support the company’s own future growth plans. To increase its market visibility and ultimately expand its customer base, Lexaria Bioscience plans to dramatically alter its capital markets strategy this year to qualify for listing on a nationally recognized U.S. exchange. The company has already met with several Wall Street investment banking firms for this purpose. Listing on a major U.S. exchange would allow Lexaria Bioscience access to a significantly larger audience of investors and open a path to a growing number of more lucrative strategic opportunities, Bunka concluded.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to LXRP are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/LXRP

• EIA forecasts renewables as fastest-growing source of energy generation in the United States
• SinglePoint subsidiary expected to see continued success alongside the growth of the solar market
• After companies exceed 2019 expectations, SING and Direct Solar management teams are optimistic about 2020

SinglePoint Inc. (OTCQB: SING), a technology investment company focusing on acquiring subsidiaries that would benefit from assistance with management, capital and technology integration, truly hitched its cart to the right horse with its investment in subsidiary Direct Solar. A residential and commercial solar broker, Direct Solar was acquired by SinglePoint in 2019. Since the acquisition, the company has exceeded revenue growth targets, helping SinglePoint achieve record-breaking financial milestones and proving the partnership to be mutually beneficial.

Renewable energy solutions have become increasingly mainstream in recent years. Recent United States Energy Information Association (EIA) forecasts predict that nonhydroelectric renewable energy resources will be the fastest-growing energy sources in the United States for at least the next couple of years. (http://ibn.fm/X46NI). As the nation’s reliance on renewable energy grows, so does the success of Direct Solar and SinglePoint.

After outstripping biomass in 2017, solar has become the third-largest renewable energy source in the U.S. power industry. Changes in environmental regulations have steered the U.S. power sector away from coal power plants, opening up more room for companies such as Direct Solar to capture a larger portion of the energy market.

As the future of energy continues to point towards renewable sources such as solar, Direct Solar is in a prime position to increase sales in the coming years. The global market for solar panels was $30.8 billion in 2016 (http://ibn.fm/ggDgE), and experts expect this market to hit $57.3 billion by 2022, anticipating a CAGR of 10.9% between 2017 and 2022.

SinglePoint seeks out undervalued companies that the company can equip with resources needed to achieve their full potential, which is exactly what it has done with Direct Solar. Direct Solar continues to report major increases in contracts every month, and the SING team expects this number to grow substantially in 2020. SinglePoint CEO Greg Lambrecht predicted the company’s increased profits in 2019 (http://ibn.fm/0513T), and he echoes that optimism looking forward into 2020. Lambrecht assures investors and potential investors that the stock price will soon reflect the company’s growing success.

SinglePoint provides investors with an opportunity to diversify their money across a wide range of dynamic industries, including renewable energy, cannabis and payment processing. The company is particularly interested in new technologies that can lead to quick and healthy gains. SING is led by founder and CEO Lambrecht, who employs an aggressive expansion strategy centered on key acquisitions and multiple joint ventures. The company began as a full-service mobile technology provider but is now a diversified holding company.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SinglePoint.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SING are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/SING

• The Wonderfilm Media Corporation is an entertainment acquisition and production company with experienced Hollywood producers able to tap into the film industry’s talent pool
• The company utilizes a lean production model that emphasizes low upfront costs, quick recovery of early shooting fees and building profits late in a film’s life cycle through delivery of a consumer-popular entry that exceeds revenue targets established with outside partners
• Amid the ongoing streaming wars, the largest scripted entertainment entities are expected to continue looking for content to feed a hungry machine that currently demands an estimated $107 billion in content acquisition spending annually
• Wonderfilm’s indie-style approach to filmmaking targets the hungry media machine for a win-win result

When Discovery Inc. President and CEO David Zaslav launched into the new year by meeting with investors in a webcast session of the Citi 2020 Global TMT West Conference in Las Vegas, the non-scripted lifestyle media content giant’s executive offered insights on the direction of consolidation and the streaming wars, arguing that consolidation of media outlets will ultimately winnow down the scripted content field but that existing streaming services will still continue to search for more content outside their own production offices.

“Every one of those bigger players doesn’t have enough content, every one of them has come to us and said you have a huge library in women, a huge library in family, your content library itself is bigger than Netflix as a whole, we need more bulk, we need more great characters,” Zaslav told the conference, adding that Discovery doesn’t intend to farm out its content (http://ibn.fm/awT8q).

The network executive’s comments underscore the hunger large content providers have for acquiring a continually larger volume of product from outside their own stables. British Columbia-based film production house Wonderfilm Media Corporation (TSX.V: WNDR) (OTCQB: WDRFF) is banking on that market, using a lean product delivery model to film vetted scripts attached to known celebrities before cameras even start rolling.

The company’s strategic budget model seeks to turn significant profits by traveling in the popular indie-level market with a slate of celebrity power to enhance its opportunities. Wonderfilm is approaching its third anniversary of commercial operations since four Hollywood producers – Daniel Grodnik, Kirk Shaw, Jeff Bowler and Bret Saxon – combined their talents to create a publicly traded entertainment company with offices in Beverly Hills and Vancouver, drawing on already established access to Hollywood’s talent pool.

Wonderfilm’s executives have resumes that include sleeper hits such as Get Out and The Hurt Locker, which have turned relatively small budgets into successful revenue-producing projects. Recent efforts have tapped luminaries such as Famke Janssen, Guy Pearce, Nicolas Cage, Ryan Phillippe and John Travolta.

The company packages and pre-sells its film products for distribution based on genre and market research. Its controlled front-end costs allow it to maximize the benefits of line item fees from the production budgets until the contracted revenue terms of the film are fulfilled and Wonderfilm begins to reap its share of any additional profits if the films are successful.

The largest media corporations are spending an estimated $107 billion each year on acquiring new content, according to Variety (http://ibn.fm/YoEGx). Wonderfilm’s project pre-sell for an average of about $5 million, with about $500,000 to $750,000 of that amount remaining in-house as commissions.

“Wonderfilm is one the very few production companies with the creative and financing depth to develop, package and produce several films simultaneously,” Shaw, the CEO, stated in a news release (http://ibn.fm/nNXCg).

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Wonderfilm.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to WDRFF are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/WDRFF

• New study reports that market opportunities related to water sector are expected to reach $1 trillion by 2025
• OriginClear perfectly positioned to gain competitive advantage, achieve commercial success
• CEO outlines significant milestones the company has reached to strengthen presence in this exploding market

In his weekly CEO Briefings, OriginClear Inc. (OTC: OCLN) CEO Riggs Eckelberry discussed a recent report, titled ‘Water: The Market of the Future’, which asserts that market opportunities related to the water sector are expected to reach $1 trillion by 2025 (http://ibn.fm/c2Apn). Eckelberry noted that OriginClear has worked hard over the past year to become perfectly positioned to make the most of these opportunities.

The study, released by Switzerland-based international investment company RobecoSAM, examines key megatrends that are shaping the water market and explores the investment opportunities that are arising from these trends. Those trends include the following:

• Population growth;
• Aging infrastructure;
• Necessary water-quality improvements; and
• Climate change altering water-resource availability.

“Such trends generate risks and opportunities for companies and investors alike,” the report reads. “Market opportunities related to the water sector are expected to reach USD $1 trillion by 2025. Companies that are early to respond and take steps to exploit the market opportunities associated with these water-related challenges are more likely to gain a competitive advantage and achieve commercial success.”

OriginClear is one of those companies responding and taking steps. “We have a really important mission [and] it’s been hard to move the needle until now, for both external and internal reasons,” Eckleberry said in his briefing. “External reasons are really that it’s an industry that has been slow to change, and we finally found this decentralization method. Then internally, we really needed much, much better systems. We needed to become more competent frankly.”

Eckelberry outlined several ways the company has done exactly that, reaching significant milestones this year to strengthen its position in this exploding market. Those milestones include adding experienced personnel in key positions, creating a seamless interface and less outsourcing by the company’s Modular Water™ division, updating the company’s project-management system, building new international partnerships and partnership structure, implementing the most up-to-date technology, exploring the potential for oil and gas-water treatment, and pursuing major acquisitions.

“That’s a summary of what it’s been,” Eckleberry said. “I think you’re going to get some surprises in the first and second quarter. I can’t get into them obviously, but I am extremely satisfied with the team we’ve got.

“When I’m asked what I do, I tell people that I’m in water, and they always think I mean home systems,” Eckelberry continued. “But as the research indicates, the greatest opportunities are outside the home… You and I care about the water we drink in our home and also the waste that we create. But if we really want to change the planet, we need to look at what’s being done with the industrial, agricultural and commercial wastewater.”

OriginClear is a leading provider of water-treatment solutions. The company offers breakthrough water-treatment and conveyance products that effectively improve the quality of the planet’s waters by returning them to their original and clear condition. The company’s stated mission is to empower this global movement with modular water-treatment and conveyance products that enable water independence and help make clean water available for all.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.OriginClear.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to OCLN are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/OCLN

• Lexaria Bioscience continues to advance the effectiveness of its proprietary DehydraTECH technology, a formulation that teams with drug substances such as nicotine and cannabidiol to quickly carry those drugs into a user’s blood stream
• Recent concerns about the safety of vape products and ongoing concerns about the safety of tobacco are opening doors to Lexaria’s edible technology
• Newly legalized cannabis-infused edibles began hitting store shelves nationwide in Canada last month, presenting Lexaria with new potential licensing outlets for its increasingly effective products

If 2019 was the year when vape users discovered the potential perils of using untested off-brand products, 2020 may well be the year when vape users share the common woe of struggling to beat an addiction.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported at year’s end that 2,561 people had been hospitalized with the vape-related lung illness now known as ‘e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury’ (EVALI) as of December 27, that the illness had afflicted every U.S. state and two territories, and that 55 EVALI-related deaths had been confirmed in 27 states and the District of Columbia, with the incidence of new cases in decline (http://ibn.fm/mh8Ga).

With the advent of the new year, anti-youth vaping advocacy group Truth Initiative reported (http://ibn.fm/ZmCUn) a survey that showed “nearly half of young people are looking to quit vaping as their New Year’s resolution.” Many parents find themselves fighting back fears of the potential outcomes as they see their children drawn into addictive behaviors (http://ibn.fm/XooYb).

Oral drug product innovator Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) is a company dedicated to the concept that there are better alternative methods for drug substance use than inhalation. The British Columbia-based bio-delivery technology developer patented its DehydraTECH™ oral drug delivery technology and has been continuing to advance its ability to pair the IP with substances such as nicotine and cannabidiol (CBD) for access to users’ bloodstreams at rapid rates comparable to the speed of acquisition by inhalation.

Swallowed medications have historically been slower to provide effective action than inhaled ones, leading substance users looking for a quick fix to lean toward the latter. But the deleterious and deadly consequences of smoking tobacco products have been publicly acknowledged for decades, though hardly stemming the tide of nicotine addiction as one generation succeeds another.

The continued preference for the rapid delivery of inhaled drug substances has led many researchers to seek alternatives beyond deterrence campaigns. DehydraTECH’s newest formulation was recently shown to deliver to deliver 811 percent more CBD into the bloodstream than generic industry control formulations, nearly doubling the capacity of existing DehydraTECH technology. It was additionally shown to deliver 1,937 percent more CBD across the blood-brain barrier into brain tissue than generic industry control formulations and 487 percent more than the original DehydraTECH technology (http://ibn.fm/YEn9J).

The blood-brain barrier is a natural biological system of blood vessels and endothelial cells that bar nearly all small-molecule drugs from accessing the brain’s central nervous system hierarchy and finding the ability to defeat it has been a primary concern for medical product developers.

The potential applications of Lexaria’s technology are many. Perhaps most noticeable at the moment is the uses arising from the legalization of cannabis-infused food on a national basis in Canada, with the first products in store shelves as of last month (http://ibn.fm/k0GHu), but the technology also creates the potential for vape makers to offer non-inhaled products to shore up their marketing.

The company has begun licensing its technology to a variety of other producers in the cannabis and tobacco spaces. Lexaria’s licensed in-house research laboratory and its IP portfolio have developed 16 patents with over 60 patents pending worldwide.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to LXRP are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/LXRP