2021.10.29
Tales of a “Fountain of Youth” that restores the vigor of anyone or drinks or bathes in it have been recounted for thousands of years.
As far back as the 5th century BC, the writings of Herodotus, a Greek historian, mention a fountain with a special kind of water that gave the Macrobians their exceptional longevity.
Alexander the Great was said to have come across a healing “river of paradise” in the 4th century BC. Some Europeans believed in the mythical king Prester John, whose kingdom they believed contained a restorative spring and a river of gold.
The Fountain of Youth is most often associated with Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon. According to legend, Ponce de Leon was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth when he traveled to Florida in 1513. When he asked native Americans about it, they told him the Fountain of Youth was in Bimini, a mythical land of wealth and prosperity located towards the Bahamas. (in retrospect it is likely the natives were talking about the Mayan kingdom)
From a Wikipedia entry, The city of St. Augustine, Florida is home to the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, a tribute to the spot where Ponce de León was supposed to have landed according to promotional literature, although there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support the claim.
In some ways we are still searching for the Fountain of Youth.
In the modern age there is a cure for just about everything, thanks to pharmaceutical treatments that provide pills for all manner of ailments, physical or mental.
However many people are turning away from these made-in-a-lab chemical cures, in no small part due to their many side effects which, due to legal ramifications, are almost comically advertised by Big Pharma on television.
These days, more and more consumers are turning to natural remedies, some of which contain plant-based substances that previously were used to get them high, but are now being consumed at lower levels for a completely different purpose —getting and staying healthy, and in the most ideal of circumstances, regaining aspects of their lost youth.
Love Pharma’s (CSE: LUV) (FSE: G1Q0) mission is to bring to market innovative products that target mental and sexual health while improving quality of everyday life.
In particular, Love Pharma considers itself to be a “new age pharma” company; that is, a company committed to offering a fresh and trustworthy perspective to the world of pharmaceuticals. Its goal is to enhance both sides of the wellness coin by offering naturally occurring therapeutics backed by scientific research.
The Vancouver-based company is planning on commercializing at least half a dozen new products in tranches, this week rolling out the first two, Bloom and Auralief.
A third product about to launch soon is a psilocybin delivery system, administered under the tongue, that Love Pharma is developing with a US pharmaceutical company partner.
“It is with great excitement that we are able to announce the launch of our first two fully-branded products, Bloom and Auralief,”, CEO and Director Zachary Stadnyk stated in the Oct. 27 news release. “We believe these two products within our strong portfolio of intellectual property can quickly command significant market share in the shortest period. We look forward to updating our investors as we progress through the rollout of these first two products and subsequently, the company’s therapeutic and wellness products in a strategic, staggered approach.”
Bloom
Described as a topical female arousal gel, Bloom increases lubrication and sensitivity. The product targets older women who may be experiencing lower libido and associated sexual issues that accompany the aging process, especially those in pre-menopause and menopause. Bloom can also be used by women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, as a sexual aid.
Drug companies have been trying to address the decline in women’s sexual desire as they age for decades. However the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been reluctant to approve anything because pharmaceuticals when introduced to the body change brain function, and that can have unwanted side effects. Regulators have also recognized the risk of approving a drug that could fall into the wrong hands and be used for nefarious purposes, i.e., a “date rape” drug.
Love Pharma saw the opportunity to develop a solution to low female libido that eliminates the date-rape risk factor. Because it’s a topical application, Bloom can only be administered by the woman or her partner, leaving one or both entirely in control of the process.
The Bloom product being released this week does not contain cannabidiol (CBD), the chemical compound found in marijuana and hemp known to have a number of health benefits without the “high” that usually accompanies ingestion of marijuana through smoking or eating.
However a new iteration of Bloom containing CBD is in the works, backed by clinical data from chief medical advisors that supports the application of CBD to stimulate nerve receptors.
Love Pharma is also working on a female sexual dysfunction supplement that has been clinically shown to increase sexual desire in women by 25%.
The product works by generating testosterone within the body, thereby increasing sex drive. That may sound counter-intuitive given that testosterone is associated with men and estrogen with women, but in fact, men and women have both sex hormones. Men lose testosterone as they age and that can be accompanied by an increase in estrogen, sometimes resulting in weight gain, decreased libido and lower energy levels.
For women, the same negative outcomes occur with higher estrogen levels associated with menopause. Introducing Love Pharma’s female sexual dysfunction product into the bodies of women undergoing menopause (also those that are pre- and post-menopausal) is expected to increase testosterone, thereby offsetting higher estrogen counts. Studies have shown the supplement also builds confidence, assertiveness and positivity in product recipients.
Auralief
Auralief is a cannabis-infused oral strip that speeds up and enhances the desired effects of THC and CBD. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana that produces the “high”.
According to Love Pharma, Auralief oral strips are paper-thin and dissolve under the tongue to administer THC and CBD. These oral strips offer a discreet and user-friendly method of delivering the mental and physiological benefits of THC and CBD, making hemp-use accessible and approachable to all. The low profile nature of Auralief strips provides a comfortable and convenient user experience while improving sleep and giving temporary relief from pain, stress, and inflammation.
The trade-marked “muco-adhesive sublingual strip” is a highly functional delivery method that Love Pharma believes THC and CBD consumers are likely to prefer over current delivery options, which include smoking, vaping and tinctures. A clinical study showed the strip is 30% more effect in delivering THC into the body than an edible product ingested with the same amount of THC.
“What we like about the sublingual absorption is its water soluble, it’s in constant contact for 3-5 minutes with your mucal membrane, it’s absorbed into the bloodstream and it’s delivered at a higher capacity, in a more bio-available way than a tincture or an edible,” says Josh Maurice, in conversation with AOTH earlier this week.
He noted that Auralief contains the full spectrum of CBD that gives the recipient a broad range of cannabinoids — exposing them to the many health properties of CBD including its use as an anti-inflammatory, to help relieve anxiety symptoms, to promote sleep and even to reduce skin irritation.
Psilocybin strip
Love Pharma recently filed a patent for a second muco-adhesive sublingual strip that has the same delivery platform as Auralief but contains psilocybin instead of CBD or THC. Psilocybin is the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms”.
Like Auralief, the strip dissolves under the tongue within 3 to 5 minutes, creating a tingling sensation and a relaxation of the blood vessels. This delivery method is highly superior to ingesting psilocybin by eating magic mushrooms or sipping a tea, because it cancels out many of the variables that commonly accompany the use of psychedelic drugs through other means.
For example, the effects of psilocybin on the body depend on: how much the recipient has eaten; the venue i.e., is the person sitting quietly or at a party dancing?; weight; and muscle mass. The upcoming psilocybin-infused strip smooths out individual differences and allows for a relatively consistent experience.
“We imagine mainstream psychedelics down the road say 10 years, when 30-40% of the population are taking them within North America, the UK, the EU,” says Maurice. “The way you get to that point is by creating a consumer form factor that is acceptable and interesting but also comfortable and convenient.”
Broadening the market
On that point, I asked Maurice how Love Pharma plans to reach customers who may be reluctant to ingest THC, CBD or psilocybin, especially older adults with an anti-drug bias.
He noted that for CBD-based products and psychedelics to reach mass market appeal, they need to go beyond “preaching to the choir,” by selling to customers that aren’t part of “the converted”.
Many cannabis companies for example have been focused on selling to the same group of customers, which limits their growth potential.
“With psychedelics it’s the same thing,” he told me. “There’s going to be many companies that will focus on the converted, to try and sell to the low-hanging fruit. Love Pharma is far more interested in developing a broader base that’s more consumer friendly and more accessible,” giving the example of a 50-year-old potential customer who has never tried psychedelics.
“We want to get them interested in the product because the delivery mechanism we offer them is convenient, comfortable, accepted, discrete. From a consumer standpoint it feels clinical, it looks like something trusted from a pharmaceutical company rather than from what somebody’s making in their basement in a brownie if that makes sense.”
Conclusion
It certainly does to me and I like the approach Love Pharma is taking with their current product roll-out, starting this month with Bloom and Auralief, then likely followed by the female sexual dysfunction product and the patent-pending psilocybin-infused muco-adhesive sublingual strip.
The latter looks extremely promising from the point of view that many people are already “micro-dosing” with psilocybin and realizing the many health effects of the formerly taboo magic mushroom ingredient. Capable of altering space and time, causing visual distortions, euphoria and mystical experiences, research into psilocybin suggests it can also be used to treat a variety of psychological disorders, including depression, OCD, end-of-life distress and addictions.
While there are a growing number of companies in the new wellness space, all hoping to capitalize on the mainstreaming of psychedelics and CBD, what seems to set Love Pharma apart is their under-the-tongue strips which I agree is a convenient and effective way to deliver the active ingredients sought, whether that is CBD, THC or psilocybin.
I also like Bloom and the upcoming female sexual dysfunction supplement, two products that appear to be highly complementary and therefore offer Love Pharma the opportunity for broadening its market appeal.
Above all I see the company as being steeped in science to create consumer-friendly products that offer the opportunity for a better, more healthy lifestyle. For some people that could mean addressing a problem, such as using CBD-infused Auralief strips to treat pain, for others it could mean applying Bloom to approximate a younger, sexier version of themselves, and yet another group will want to use Auralief recreationally.
Marketing 101 holds that to be successful in business you need a diversity of products and multiple market segments. Love Pharma in that way is definitely on the right track.
Maurice expounds further in outlining his vision for the company, which also serves as a good conclusion:
“We really see ourselves being science-based around innovation and novelty, not in terms of being one-off or goofy, but truly in the sense of being novel. We want to introduce products that have exceptional performance and we center that on a foundation of delivery and bio-availablility. How do we get something to perform better within your body?”
“You have to have a pipeline that is built on uniqueness, novelty that is protected through IP (intellectual property) and that’s the focus of Love Pharma is to continually acquire, license, develop, own technology that provides protection for the company and its investors, but at the same time, guarantees the consumer a unique, special experience that is highly functional.”
Love Pharma Inc.
CSE: LUV; FSE: G1Q0
Cdn$0.06, 2021.10.28
Shares Outstanding 312.17m
Market cap Cdn$13m
LUV website
Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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