June 13, 2022 – Philippines News Gazette

June 13, 2022

Republic of South Africa Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Acquisitions LLC (RSAMMDA.LLC) Completes Acquisition of Protext Mobility, Inc. (TXTM)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Republic of South Africa Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Acquisitions LLC (“RSAMMDA.LLC”) is pleased to announce it has closed on the acquisition of Protext Mobility, Inc (OTC PINK: TXTM) (A.K.A. Protext Pharma) in a share exchange whereby 100% of capital stock in RSAMMDA.LLC will be exchanged for Preferred Stock in Protext. RSAMMDA.LLC. is a jointly owned company focused on acquistions with two principals, Mr. Dylon Du Plooy and Dr. Ahmed Jamaloodeen (“Dr. J”) who represent the South African business entities of RSAMMD and Leeds Boerdery. RSAMMD is a South African pioneer in the research, cultivation, production and distribution of medical cannabis and cannabinoids. Leeds Boerdery, controlled by Dr. J, owns the 5000 Hectacre New Castle Farm as well as federally issued cannabis and hemp licenses issued by the Government of South Africa. RSAMMD management have taken over the daily operations of Protext headed by Mr. Du Plooy as CEO and Director, and Dr. Jamaloodeen as President and Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Dylon Du Plooy, Protext CEO and Principal of RSAMMD.LLC, commented, “This transaction has been a long time in the making. For the past couple years we have been focused on building our operations in South Africa and globally, where have built an extensive infrastructure and global cannabis/hemp business. During this period of time, we have invested heavily in building a significant cannabis/hemp operation to facilitate complete seed to sale, R&D, global off-take agreements for end product as well as all the extraction infrastructure needed to create what we believe to be some of the highest quality hemp and cannabis on the planet. In South Africa right now, we have just completed our semi-annual grow. RSAMMD in Joint Venture with Leeds Boerdery, cultivated hemp and cannabis crops this past season on a combined 1000+ hectacres. All of this is done under federally issued permits and licenses to grow, import/export hemp and cannabis, as well as research permits for conducting testing of final products for human consumption and medicinal benefits.”

Dr. Jamaloodeen, Protext President and Chairman, commented, “We are excited about this transaction and taking Protext to the next level. We believe there to be numerous synergies to incorporate the Protext proprietary live plant extraction technology and processes into our existing infrastructure. We envision adding other assets into the operations of Protext, including our off-take agreements and present sales, with the goal of uplifting exchanges in the future. As previously announced, Protext and RSAMMD jointly worked together and conducted a series of tests on live cannabis to prove out that the Kettle system and extraction technologies did what they were supposed to do. We look forward to discussing this further as well as our upcoming operational plans.”

“Over the coming days and weeks, we will be sharing our immediate term road map and long-term plans we are developing for Protext which should translate into increasing shareholder value. These plans include adding other valuable assets to the company which complement the core business, and executing on commercializing the proprietary live plant extraction technology as well as deploying our crypto platform, with a TXTM token which we are excited to rollout very soon,” concluded Mr. Du Plooy.

CONTACT INFORMATION
For all media inquiries or for further information, please contact
Dylon Du Plooy at: dylon@rsammd.co.za
Dr.J at: exportintl@aol.com

About RSAMMD
RSAMMD Acquisitions LLC is a jointly owned business of RSAMMD, a South African pioneer in the research, cultivation, production and distribution of medical cannabis and cannabinoids, and Dr. J, who operates the 5000 Hectacre New Castle Farm as well as the federally issued cannabis and hemp licenses. Together, we partner with leading hospitals and universities globally to advance the clinical benefits and applications of cannabinoids.

RSAMMD’s founders are a group of medical doctors and pharmacists, and cannabis activists who have been at the forefront of medical cannabis legislation and South African cannabis legalization, which took place in September 2018. We are committed to the advancement of technology and scientific research that leads to an improved quality of life for patients around the world.
Please visit www.rsammd.co.za for further information.

About Protext (OTC PINK: TXTM)
Through previously disclosed acquisitions, Protext has engaged in the research, testing and commercialization of highly bioavailable botanical products all-natural ingredients formulated for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications through the use of proprietary live plant extraction technology.

Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance or guarantee that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” or “project” or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, international governmental regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. The company disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement. This press release shall not be deemed a general solicitation.

June 13, 2022

Philips to repurchase up to 3.2 million shares to cover long-term incentive and employee stock purchase plans

June 13, 2022

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced that it will repurchase up to 3.2 million shares to cover certain of its obligations arising from its long-term incentive and employee stock purchase plans. At the current share price, the shares represent an amount of up to approximately EUR 68 million.

The repurchases will be executed through one or more individual forward transactions, expected to be entered into in the second and/or the third quarter of 2022, in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation and within the limits of the authorization granted by the company’s General Meeting of Shareholders on May 10, 2022. Philips expects to take delivery of the shares in 2024. Further details will be available via this link.

For further information, please contact:

Ben Zwirs
Philips Global Press Office
Tel.: +31 6 1521 3446
E-mail: ben.zwirs@philips.com

Derya Guzel
Philips Investor Relations
Tel.: +31 20 59 77055
E-mail: derya.guzel@philips.com

About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2021 sales of EUR 17.2 billion and employs approximately 79,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Forward-looking statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Philips and certain of the plans and objectives of Philips with respect to these items. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements made about the strategy, estimates of sales growth, future EBITA, future developments in Philips’ organic business and the completion of acquisitions and divestments. By their nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.

June 13, 2022

Philips announces positive three-year clinical research results from its Tack Optimized Balloon Angioplasty (TOBA) II below-the-knee (BTK) clinical trial

June 13, 2022

For below-the-knee arterial dissection repair following balloon angioplasty, innovative medical technology shows sustained treatment effect and positive impact on quality of life for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI)
First and only FDA-approved device of its kind demonstrates consistently high rates of target limb salvage (93.9%) and freedom from clinically-driven target lesion revascularization (69.6%)

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the latest results from the Tack Optimized Balloon Angioplasty (TOBA) II below-the-knee (BTK) clinical trial, demonstrating that the Philips endovascular system – Tack (4F) – the first and only device of its kind approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), provides a sustained treatment effect and positive impact on quality of life for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), a severe stage of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), out to three years of clinical follow-up.

CLI occurs when an obstruction in an artery severely reduces blood flow, causing painful wounds, debilitating rest pain, recurring ulcers and life-threatening infection. If left untreated, 50% of patients with CLI will undergo an amputation or die within the first year [1].

The TOBA II BTK trial studied the safety and efficacy of post-angioplasty dissection repair using the Philips Tack endovascular system in patients with CLI and infrapopliteal disease. The Tack endovascular system is a unique specialized implantable device to optimize the treatment of dissections in patients with CLI. Endpoints included rates of major adverse events, target lesion revascularization (TLR), target limb salvage (TLS) and quality of life (QoL) metrics.

“Based on 36-month follow-up in the TOBA II BTK trial, which is following 233 patients at 41 sites internationally, the Tack endovascular system offers a new standard in repairing below-the-knee arterial dissections,” said co-principal investigator George Adams, M.D., director of cardiovascular and peripheral vascular research at UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., and clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who presented the results to hundreds of interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons at the New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) conference in New Orleans, USA, on June 2.

Adams added: “The device stands to significantly benefit patients with CLI whose treatment with balloon angioplasty often leads to this particular complication, which typically goes untreated and unaddressed, to the detriment of long-term clinical outcomes.”

The three-year analysis of TOBA II BTK results includes the following clinical insights on the Tack endovascular system:

93.9% target limb salvage in CLI patients at three years
69.6% freedom from clinically-driven target lesion revascularization across all patients at three years
Sustained improvement in established clinical classification systems including the Rutherford clinical category and hemodynamics in ankle- and toe-brachial indices
Sustained improvement in patient-reported quality-of-life and mobility measures

“In treating peripheral arterial disease below the knee with balloon angioplasty, dissections of the popliteal, tibial and peroneal arteries occur with considerable frequency,” explained Chris Landon, business leader of Image Guided Therapy Devices at Philips. “With the Tack endovascular system from Philips, interventionists can reliably repair below-the-knee arterial dissections – and in doing so, improve major amputation rates and quality of life.”

Philips has previously reported data from the TOBA II and III studies, which evaluated the Tack endovascular system for superficial femoral and proximal popliteal artery dissection repair following uncoated balloon angioplasty and/or drug-coated balloon (DCB) angioplasty. These multicenter, global and European studies demonstrated that the use of the Tack endovascular system resulted in overwhelming dissection resolution following uncoated or DCB angioplasty.

In TOBA II, which involved uncoated and drug-coated balloons, dissection repair with the Tack System resulted in 89.6% and 86.5% 12-month primary patency (uncoated balloon group) and freedom from CD-TLR
In TOBA III, which involved drug-coated balloons, dissection repair with the Tack endovascular system resulted in 95.0% and 97.5% 12-month primary patency and freedom from CD-TLR

There were no major adverse events reported through 30 days in either study.

Together, the TOBA II, TOBA III and TOBA II BTK trials support the safety and efficacy of the Tack endovascular system for post-PTA dissection repair in above- and below-the-knee arterial disease. The 36-month TOBA II BTK data reported at NCVH adds to the robust body of clinical evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of the Tack Endovascular System in both vessel beds.

Philips Tack endovascular system is currently available for sale in the USA and some EU countries. Further information, including safety information, is available here. The system is part of the company’s peripheral vascular portfolio, which includes advanced interventional imaging systems for precision guidance including Vascular Suite on its Image Guided Therapy System – Azurion; intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) catheters to assess the location of the disease and lesion morphology and guide and confirm the treatment; peripheral atherectomy devices to remove blockages; sculpting balloons to prep the vessel; and peripheral therapy devices, such as Philips’ Stellarex drug-coated balloon, to treat lesions.

[1] Hirsh AT, Jaskal ZJ, Hertzer, et al. ACC/AHA 2005 guidelines for the management of patients with peripheral arterial disease (lower extremity, renal, mesenteric, and abdominal aortic): executive summary a collaborative report from the American Association for Vascular Surgery/Society for Vascular Surgery, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society for Vascular Medicine and Biology, Society of Interventional Radiology, and the ACC/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Develop Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease) endorsed by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Society for Vascular Nursing; TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus; and Vascular Disease Foundation. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2006 Mar 21;113(11):e463-654.

For further information, please contact:

Joost Maltha
Philips Global Press Office
Tel: +31 610 558 116
E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com

Fabienne van der Feer
Philips Image Guided Therapy
Tel: + 31 622 698 001
E-mail: fabienne.van.der.feer@philips.com

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2021 sales of EUR 17.2 billion and employs approximately 79,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

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June 13, 2022

70% of schools in Iloilo now on limited F2F classes

Close to 70 percent of the 1,172 schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division Office (SDO) of the province of Iloilo are now implementing the limited face-to-face (F2F) classes as of Monday.

“All in all, we have 812 schools that have already opened their limited face-to-face classes on Monday,” SDO Iloilo Superintendent Ma. Luz de los Reyes said in an interview.

These are composed of 133 secondary, 589 elementary schools, 55 integrated and 35 private schools.

Further, 158 came from the province’s first district, 123 from second, 191 from third, 71 from fourth and 269 from fifth district.

De los Reyes said she hoped that all schools would be able to also open their blended learning, a combination of limited face-to-face and modular, come new school year.

“Those who have not opened yet, they still have time. Hopefully, they can open because supposedly, our target is 100 percent,” she said.

Most of those who have yet to get their go signal lack the physical facilities and management plan, she added.

De los Reyes said they have not received any negative feedback from those that are already implementing their F2F.

Instead, both parents and learners are enjoying and even excited for their face-to-face graduation.

On the part of the school, there was also a reduction in the volume of modules that they need to reproduce and school supplies that they have to prepare.

There was also a proper follow-up, monitoring, and physical count of learners aside from seeing them work on their school activities.

De los Reyes added the management plan of schools is also helpful in preventing any possible outbreak in school as until now, they have not monitored cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) from schools that are offering the F2F classes.

“We still continue to adhere to the DOH (Department of Health) that we shall continue to wear masks, alcohol and follow health protocols. That is still part of the assessment that our schools provide for the health kit, hand washing area. In the absence of these, they are not qualified to open,” she added.

Source: Philippines News Agency

June 13, 2022

NegOr anti-crime ops net 87 suspects

Police in Negros Oriental arrested over the weekend a total of 87 persons for various offenses during massive anti-crime operations dubbed “One Time, Big Time”.

Col. Germano Mallari, provincial police director, said on Monday the Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) was held on Saturday as part of a region-wide intensified campaign against crime and other offenses in Central Visayas.

“The SEMPO is conducted once a month with all police stations required to produce positive results in the drive against illegal drugs, firearms, and gambling, as well as the service of warrants of arrest,” Mallari said in mixed English and Cebuano.

Records at the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office showed that on June 11, police arrested a total of 10 persons in relation to the illegal drugs trade and seized 9.5 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated value of PHP64,260.

On illegal gambling, 12 operations were launched with 25 people arrested with seven others at-large while PHP2,507 in bet money was confiscated.

The campaign against Most Wanted Persons and Other Wanted Persons netted 52 individuals who were arrested for various criminal charges filed against them in court.

Meanwhile, 10 Oplan Katok operations in relation to the campaign against loose firearms yielded 10 various firearms while 22 others were either confiscated or surrendered.

No arrests were made, however, for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Source: Philippines News Agency

June 13, 2022

750 more fishers from Zambales get gov’t fuel discount

Another group of fisherfolk in Central Luzon has benefited from the government’s fuel subsidy program that aims to ease the impact of rising oil prices on the local fishing industry.

Wilfredo Cruz, director of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Luzon (DA-BFAR 3), said Monday that 750 fishers from the municipalities of San Narciso, San Antonio, Cabangan, Iba, and Botolan received PHP3,000 fuel subsidy each in the form of discount cards which they can use to purchase gasoline for their fishing operations.

Cruz said their agency has given fuel discount cards to 200 fisherfolk during the launch of the program in Subic, Zambales in March.

Of the total 6,709 fisherfolk-beneficiaries from Central Luzon, 3,352 are from the province of Zambales.

Cruz cited the need to continuously provide support to fisherfolk who play vital roles in attaining national food security amid the rising prices of oil.

“Providing fuel discounts for fisherfolk now is very timely since this addresses their production need amid the increasing oil prices,” he said in an interview.

To avail of the fuel subsidy, eligible fisherfolk and/or members of fisherfolk cooperatives and associations must be registered under the fisherfolk registration program or FishR.

They must be using motorized boats with a capacity of three gross tons or below and registered under the boat registration program or BoatR and must be using environment-friendly fishing gears.

To avail of the discount, fishers only need to visit the government's partner-gasoline stations and present their discount cards, which can already be used 24 hours upon receipt.

Source: Philippines News Agency