Plandai Biotechnology Inc. (PLPL) Announces Successful Completion of Government Inspection

Plandai Biotechnology Inc. (OTC Markets: PLPL) (the “Company” or “Plandai”), a producer of nutraceutical and highly bioavailable extracts, today announced that its affiliate company, Protext Pharma, Inc. (TXTM), held a meeting July 4th 2018 at the company’s office in White River, Mpumalanga, with senior Government staff members of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) (formerly known as the Medicine Control Council-MCC). The meetings included in-depth discussion of the company’s anticipated medical cannabis business in the country, site visit and complete inspection of a large industrial building the company has secured and plans to use for growing, cultivating and extraction of cannabis for medical research and development purposes.  The completion of the facility site inspection is a big milestone in the process of pursuing this government issued license, and is believed to be the final hurdle before Protext and one of its subsidiaries is issued one of the first licenses in South Africa that will allow for establishing a research and development platform for developing cannabis based medicines.

Commenting on the meeting, Plandaí Chief Operating Officer, Callum Cottrell-Duffield stated, “We understand that the site inspection was successful, and the industrial building Protext secured was given the green light as a suitable facility for building the medical cannabis operations.  The anticipated license will allow Protext to legally grow cannabis and conduct research for the purpose of producing a full profile non-psychoactive cannabis extract for medicinal use. Protext, which is an affiliate company of Plandaí with Plandai owning a significant equity stake (60%), owns the exclusive license to create a pharmaceutical cannabis extract using our proprietary extraction process.  Prior human clinical trials have shown that Plandai’s technology successfully increases the bioavailability of its extract 12-15 times compared to a generic extract.  Protext’s investigations will be designed to show that our extraction process, which will use live leaf and low temperatures to extract the phyto-cannabinoids, should leave the acid forms of THC intact, resulting in a non-psychoactive extract with full medicinal potential and having the heightened bioavailability of other Phytofare® extracts.”

Mr. Cottrell-Duffield added, “South Africa is one of only a few countries around the world medical cannabis has become legal on a Federal level through government-issued licenses.  There is a growing body of evidence indicating cannabis can help regulate the endocannabinoid system, which explains its perceived benefits for a host of ailments especially inflammation, depression, post-traumatic stress, muscle spasticity, chronic pain, and other neural disorders. The cannabis business is a large and emerging market anticipated to grow to $55.8 billion by 2025.  Currently, arthritis affects more than one in four U.S. adults. Adjusted estimates for 2015 suggest that arthritis prevalence in the U.S. has been substantially underestimated, especially among adults younger than age 65.   Based on adjusted estimates, 91.2 million U.S. adults either have doctor-diagnosed arthritis and/or report joint symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of arthritis. Protext previously announced that the research focus will initially be geared towards inflammation and, as a subset, chronic pain management. With the current opioid epidemic a topic of serious concern, the Company believes that many health professionals and patients will welcome an alternative to addictive medicine.  Inflammation is the root of pain and discomfort many millions of people suffer from and live with on a daily basis and has been shown to be part of the human endocannabinoid system.  This means that it should respond well to a high-bioavailable, full-profile cannabis medicine.

“This is an exciting time for both Companies as South Africa just recently joined a few select other countries around the world that have opened the door to legally grow cannabis for medical purpose under a government issued license.  Whereas, in the United States and most other countries around the world, growing and researching cannabis is still illegal under Federal law.  Plandai has been operating in South Africa for years, having developed an expertise in the extraction of phytonutrients from live plants, which we believe uniquely positions Protext through its subsidiary company to be issued a government license that will employ Plandai patented extraction technology to a new and rapidly evolving market,” concluded Mr. Cottrell-Duffield.