SAN DIEGO, CA, June 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE – Upper Street Marketing Inc. (OTC Markets: symbol UPPR) has finalized a binding multi-million dollar agreement to purchase state-of-the-art extraction systems from ICC Group (https://www.icc-inc.net) designed to process up to 2 million pounds of raw hemp biomass a year into 120,000 liters of crude cannabidiol (CBD) free from psychoactive contaminants.
“ICC Group is one of the preeminent pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment companies in the world,” said UPPR CEO Joseph Earle. “Executing this agreement puts us on track to start converting raw hemp into CBD distillates and concentrates within the next 120 days.”
ICC Group personnel have designed and installed manufacturing plants, automated production systems and other projects budgeted at over $1 billion over the past quarter century. Clients in the pharmaceutical space include some of the largest and most prestigious companies in the world and many more large multinational companies that demand adherence to FDA current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) standards.
Achieving that level of quality control without sacrificing productivity on a highly compressed timeline is central to the ICC Group mission and essential to UPPR’s business plan. Processing the raw hemp plant into legal CBD products requires sensitive and transparent systems to ensure that psychoactive components remain within federal limitations for sale in all jurisdictions.
The systems UPPR has purchased will support a fully cGMP environment at all stages of the CBD production cycle from initial biomass delivery to output in easily transported 5-gallon containers. These containers of full-spectrum hemp oil will then be shipped from Colorado to UPPR’s San Diego laboratory for processing into higher-grade distillates and isolates.
As the FDA holds its first hearings on CBD marketing and development practices, manufacturers that can meet cGMP standards now will be in a stronger position to comply if, for example, regulators decide to segregate high-grade CBD products from those currently on the market.
“With an anticipated 2 million tons of hemp biomass already moving toward harvest and UPPR processing facilities, securing true pharmaceutical-grade systems ensures that we provide superior products and dramatically enhances our leadership on compliance and quality,” CEO Joseph Earle said.
“We have the raw hemp supply relationships, the production facilities and contract manufacturing partnerships in place. Now that the equipment itself is coming, the road to an extraction start and significant revenue event as early as September is now clear.”
Fortune magazine and other publications have contemplated a 100X surge in CBD consumption between now and 2023, at which point UPPR and other producers will need to ramp up output from a currently minimal annual 50,000 kg of isolate to as much as 3.5 million kg annually.
Recent industry pricing on CBD isolates are running above $3,000 per pound ($7,000 per kilogram) and many organic hemp farmers target yields of 15% CBD or higher.
UPPR has also retained FDA-certified contract pharmaceutical manufacturer PrimaPharma (http://www.primapharma.net) to ensure that all products meet regulatory and commercial standards.
“We remain on track to reach our stated goal of installing enough capacity to produce over 100,000 kg of CBD isolate a year within the next 36 months,” CEO Earle explained.
About Upper Street Marketing and CBD
An estimated 7% of Americans are currently consuming CBD products, with that population conservatively expanding 30% (to 25 million adults) by 2025. Now fully legal as a non-psychoactive product of industrial hemp, CBD has been promoted as an effective treatment for everything from arthritis to insomnia. To date, the only FDA-approved uses are for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. With one of the only integrated “seed to consumer” platforms for participating in all phases of the industry from crop to value-added commercial and clinical product development, UPPR intends to be a leader in FDA cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) capabilities in the hemp and CBD marketplace.
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Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about the Company's business, based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such statements could be affected by risks and uncertainties related to: (i) our ability to execute the Company's business plans with the uncertainty of agricultural crops (ii) product demand, market, and customer acceptance of the Company's products, (iii) the Company's ability to obtain financing to expand our operations, (iv) the Company's ability to attract qualified sales representatives, (v) competition, pricing and development difficulties, (vi) the Company's ability to conduct the business if there are changes in laws, regulations, or government policies related to the Company's products, (vii) the Company's ability to conduct operations if it faces product recalls, and (viii) general industry and market conditions and growth rates and general economic conditions. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.