By the second week of the year, people, businesses and even the stock market are back to business as usual following the holiday rush in December and ringing in the new year in early January.
Discussions on our Stockhouse Bullboards are also back in the saddle, and companies in the health care sector have been generating buzz in the early goings of the year.
Take
Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ:TLRY, Forum), a top Canadian cannabis license producer, for example, which acquired two California craft beer brands at the end of 2021, a new regulatory disclosure
recently revealed. According to the document, Tilray acquired Alpine and Green Flash in a transaction worth US$5.1 million as the Canadian LP continues towards its path of entering the US cannabis market.
In addition to these new acquisitions, Tilray
released its fiscal Q2 2022 financial results on January 10, highlighting net revenue increased by 20 percent to $155 million from the same quarter in the previous year. The company also revealed a parent name, Tilray Brands Inc., which indicates its evolution from a Canadian LP to a global consumer packaged goods company.
Meanwhile
Sernova Corp. (TSXV:SVA, OTCQB:SEOVF, Forum), a clinical-stage company that is developing products to treat debilitating diseases, announced an update on its Phase 1/2 T1D clinical rial. The purpose of this trial is assessing the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the company's Cell Pouch in conjunction with insulin-producing islets in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) complicated by hypoglycemia unawareness and history of severe hypoglycemic events.
Dr. Philip Toleikis, president and CEO of Sernova Corp, said, “We believe Sernova is the first company to report that its first two transplanted T1D cell therapy study patients achieved sustained insulin independence. We are further reassured that our Cell Pouch System is performing as expected by creating a safe, vascularized, and natural tissue environment inside the human body, allowing the islet cells to thrive and function efficiently following transplantation."
Finally in the health care sector,
Reliq Health Technologies Inc. (TSXV:RHT, OTC Pink:RQHTF, Forum) announced in January
that it had signed an agreement with Cognizant in order to expand the company's iUGO Care software to large-scale clients.
Reliq's iUGO Care solution improves health outcomes and allows clinicians to provide care to patients anywhere, anytime while reducing costs to the health care system. The system is a remote patient monitoring platform and is used by a wide range of health care organizations in the US.
Our agreement with Cognizant will allow us to scale to new levels and provide even the largest health care organizations with confidence that we can meet the needs of their patient populations, no matter the size. This agreement will allow Reliq to access new opportunities to provide virtual care to much larger patient populations both within the US and globally," Dr. Lisa Crossley, CEO of Reliq Health Technologies, said in a release.
In metals and mining,
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX:IVN, OTCQX:IVPAF, Forum)provided a 2022 production update, indicating it plans to produce 340,000 tonnes of copper at its Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The company said it plans to begin operations at the Phase 2 concentrator plant in Q2 2022, which Ivanhoe Mines said is the same as its Phase 1 concentrator, with a nameplate milling capacity of 3.8 million tonnes per year. In line with this, a Phase 3 expansion is also advancing and is expected in Q3 2022.
Then we have
HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. (TSXV:HPQ, OTCQX:HPQFF,Forum),
which announced on January 12 advancements that have been done with its PUREVAP Nano Silicon Reactor development, lead by its technology provider PyroGenesis Canada (TSX:PYR, NASDAQ:PYR).
The company said that the PyroGenesis engineering team continued to resolve the design and process issues that were encountered during the first Phase of the PUREVAP NSiR development program. The modified Gen1.5PUREVAP NSiR system was redesigned and built in the third quarter of 2021 and then commissioned in Q4.
What the "Buzz"
Our Bullboards have up to 2 Million pageviews a day. Get the inside scoop on conversations around the most significant trends and stock appreciations in our weekly wrap up.
Get "Buzz on the Bullboards" delivered to your inbox every Thursday!
Buzz on the Bullboards | Sign Up Here
“For HPQ NANO, 2021 was the year of “Slow is Smooth & Smooth is Fast”. While it may have taken us longer than we had expected to get here, we are here now, ready to revolutionize nano-silicon materials manufacturing for batteries, a market that is ready to explode” said Bernard Tourillon, President and CEO of HPQ Silicon. “While HPQ value proposition is derived from harnessing the potential of our silicon materials innovations, manufacturing and commercializing the silicon and nano Silicon materials needed to offer ESG compliant silicon materials to meet the demand of the up-and-coming renewable energy revolution, we could not be here without PyroGenesis and its technical team depth and experience.”
In technology,
Datametrex AI Ltd. (TSXV:DM, OTCQB:DTMFX, Forum) announced it is increasing its weekly COVID testing to 300 percent. Datametrex said it has been requested to test on 24-hour rotations effective immediately.
"The company is pleased to be able to accommodate the need from the film and production companies. With 24-hour Covid-19 testing rotations, we anticipate a significant increase in revenue in the COVID-19 business," said Marshall Gunter, CEO of the Company.
The beginning of the year also signals the start of conference season, and
Quarterhill Inc. (TSX:QTRH, OTCQX:QTRHF, Forum)announced it will be participating in several conferences over the month of January.
The first is the ATB 10th Annual Institutional Investor Conference and the second is the 24th Annual Needham Growth Conference, both of which are taking place virtually.
Canadian tech giant
BlackBerry Limited (TSX:BB,NYSE:BB, Forum) announced a partnership with the University of Waterloo to help address global water-related challenges.
In the press release, BlackBerry said that the Water Innovation Challenge will use the company's technologies, which include cybersecurity of water systems, water emergencies and internet of things (IoT) water management solutions.
"BlackBerry was founded with an agenda of addressing some of the world's most critical needs, specifically cybersecurity and connectivity. We are purposefully delivering innovations and partnerships which leverage our technologies to address these most pressing issues facing communities and industries around the world," said Neelam Sandhu, Senior Vice President and Chief Elite Customer Success Officer, BlackBerry.