22nd Century Group Inc (NYSEMKT:XXII) shares were up 18.89% on Monday to $1.10 and an additional 0.91% in after-hours trading to $1.11. The company has a market cap of $98.72 million at 90.70 million shares outstanding. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.71 to $1.71.
22nd Century Group Inc is a plant biotechnology company that is focused on technology that allows increasing or decreasing the level of nicotine and other nicotinic alkaloids in tobacco plants, and levels of cannabinoids in cannabis plants through genetic engineering and plant breeding.
The company is engaged in various activities, including research and development of less harmful or modified risk tobacco products and tobacco plant varieties, development of X-22, a smoking cessation aid consisting of very low nicotine cigarettes, manufacture, marketing and distribution of its RED SUN and MAGIC cigarettes, production of SPECTRUM research cigarettes for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, contract manufacturing of third-party branded tobacco products, and research and development of plant varieties of hemp/cannabis, such as plants with low to no amounts of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, plants with high levels of cannabidiol, and other non-THC cannabinoids.
22nd Century Group shared that it has been invited to present at the LD Micro Invitational Investor Conference at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, 11461 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California this week. President and CEO Henry Sicignano, III and Vice President of Plant Biotechnology Dr. Paul Rushton will provide investor attendees with a business update and will highlight the company’s advances in the rapidly evolving legal medical marijuana and industrial hemp markets. In particular, Dr. Rushton will highlight the company’s proprietary cannabis initiatives, including the development of THC-free industrial hemp varieties and the propagation of medical marijuana strains that are selected for increased levels of medically-important cannabinoids.
Recall that several states voted to legalize the use of recreational or medical marijuana in last month’s elections, leading analysts to project that the market will reach as high as $20 billion by 2020. There are several companies already making their investment in the space while 22nd Century Group appears uniquely positioned with enough biotechnology know-how in exploring revenue streams in the cannabis industry.
“We are delighted that our research and development is opening exciting new paths to medically-important and industrially-important products. We are developing new medical marijuana as well as industrial hemp varieties with substantially altered levels of cannabinoids, all of which will be below the legal limit of 0.3% THC. We aim to become major suppliers of proprietary plants for both legal medical marijuana and industrial hemp cultivation, which are projected to be multi-billion dollar markets in the near term,” said Dr. Rushton.
He added that the company is actively filing provisional patents in the marijuana field and is expanding their activities in a number of pilot hemp projects in partnership with research universities which possess the necessary federal and state licenses and permits.
22nd Century Group Inc shares still seem to be treading sideways on the longer-term time frames and is on a decline on the short-term charts. Volume has picked ahead of the elections but has been subdued since, although it remains higher compared to much earlier in the year so there’s still a significant amount of investor interest. Activity and stock prices could surge depending on how the company’s presentation this week turns out.
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