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Atlanta, Georgia, April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Camp Southern Ground kicks off “What Different Can Do,” a month-long awareness campaign to flip the perception of “different” on its head. Recognizing the negative impact exclusion can have on a child’s self-esteem, confidence, and mental health, “What Different Can Do” aims to celebrate different, support inclusion and raise funds to help send over 600 children to summer camp.

Camp Southern Ground, founded by GRAMMY Award-winning artist Zac Brown, was built from the ground up to be fully inclusive. One of the first residential programs in the country to be accredited by the National Inclusion Project, Camp Southern Ground’s model includes sensory-inclusive facilities design, individualized accommodation plans, and a program that utilizes universal design principles to ensure all campers can be included in every activity.

Using the experience of summer camp as a catalyst for change, Camp Southern Ground brings together children of different backgrounds and abilities to celebrate every child’s unique differences, providing them with the encouragement and tools that allow them to see themselves and others through a new lens – one that recognizes differences as assets and, ultimately, changes the world for the better.

“From the beginning, our goal has been to provide a safe and healthy environment where children have an opportunity to grow with, learn from, and connect to children who may be different from them,” says Camp Southern Ground CEO Mike Dobbs. “That kind of inclusion changes you. It helps kids know they are accepted, celebrated, and capable of bigger things.”

In addition to featuring engaging content with neurodiversity experts, parents and kids, Camp Southern Ground will lead conversations, share helpful resources and inspire with stories of hope. We believe that differences are secret strengths and should be respected and celebrated. Join the discussion on social media or donate today to support inclusion. All gifts up to $10,000 will be matched to support Camp Southern Ground in providing more children the life-changing experience of summer camp.

“What Different Can Do” is made possible by Lovesac, designers of furniture for life, and Wilmington Trust, premier providers of wealth and institutional service, two generous organizations dedicated to supporting their communities. For more information or to donate, visit https://CampSouthernGround.org/events/April.

About Camp Southern Ground

In 2011, with the belief his musical talent was given for the purpose of putting more good into the world, Zac Brown purchased 400 acres of pastoral land in Fayetteville, Georgia, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, and built Camp Southern Ground, a world-class facility dedicated to serving youth and veterans.

During summer months, Camp Southern Ground is an inclusive, residential camp serving kids from varied socioeconomic backgrounds, races and religions. Children with autism spectrum disorder, learning and attention issues and social or emotional challenges come together with typically developing children and children of military servicemembers to participate in programs that challenge, educate, and inspire.

For the remainder of the year, Camp Southern Ground’s two veteran programs, Warrior Week and Warrior PATHH, help veterans find community, direction, purpose and healing during—and even long after—their transition back to civilian life. Both programs, provided at no cost to participants, start with a high-intensity week at Camp Southern Ground. For more information, please visit https://CampSouthernGround.org.

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OGDEN, Utah, April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TAB Bank is pleased to announce the addition of Dustin Jacobson (303-319-5434, [email protected]) to their business development team as Vice President and Business Development Officer. Dustin is based in Denver and is responsible for sourcing new business opportunities by providing asset-based and factoring working capital facilities to commercial entities in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States with annual revenues of $2 million to $150 million.

Dustin comes to TAB Bank with over 15 years of experience in the asset-based lending arena. Dustin spent 13 years with Wells Fargo, holding various positions from field examiner to originations. In 2015, Dustin was recruited by NBH Bank to build out its ABL platform. Additional responsibilities at NBH included underwriting, relationship management, and originations. Most recently, Dustin was Managing Director at Sunflower Bank where he was tasked with building out their ABL platform and team for the bank’s growing portfolio. Dustin earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Finance from the University of Wyoming.

“We are very pleased with the addition of Dustin to our business development team. He brings with him a wealth of experience and contacts that he has built and nurtured during his impressive career in the asset-based lending space. We are also very excited for the opportunity to expand our footprint in the Rocky Mountain region and provide working capital solutions for commercial businesses in this area,” commented Curtis Sutherland, Senior Vice President of TAB Bank’s Western Region.

TAB Bank provides custom working capital solutions to commercial businesses across a wide range of industries. These solutions can be customized to meet the needs of companies in all stages of the business life cycle and during any economic conditions. TAB Bank does this through a variety of asset-based structures including Asset-Based Revolving Loans, Accounts Receivable Financing, Lines of Credit, and Equipment Finance. TAB’s lending options can also be combined with a full suite of business banking solutions and Treasury Management Services.

Contact Information:
Trevor Morris
Director of Marketing
801-624-5172
[email protected]
Twitter – @TABBank
Facebook – facebook.com/TABbank

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ed35d565-2130-4ee8-9bff-580cd5537c2b

EDISON, N.J., April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HealthEC, a leading provider of population health management solutions, announced today it has achieved full accreditation with the Outsourced Services Accreditation Program (OSAP) for its population health management (PHM) platform from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). EHNAC’s OSAP accreditation recognizes excellence in health data processing and transactions as well as ensures compliance with industry-established standards and HIPAA regulations. Through OSAP accreditation, other EHNAC candidates who use HealthEC will not have to pay for additional site visits to the organization.

Through EHNAC’s comprehensive third-party review, HealthEC was evaluated in areas of privacy and security, technical performance, business practices and organizational resources as it relates to outsourcing policies and procedures. In addition, EHNAC reviewed the organization’s process of managing and transferring protected health information and determined that the organization meets or exceeds all EHNAC criteria and industry standards.

“There is a continuous need for healthcare organizations to outsource for various services. However, as they continue to be the target of the ever-evolving cybercriminal, a vendor’s dependability, and ability to securely handle protected health information (PHI) with integrity and effectiveness is a critical requirement for all associated business partners,” said Lee Barrett, executive director and CEO of EHNAC. “To be classified amongst the EHNAC OSAP-accredited organizations, HealthEC has dedicated time and effort to meet a high standard in the areas of privacy, security, and confidentiality of PHI as it relates to consent, authorization, authentication, access and audit procedures. We congratulate them on this achievement.”

“We are proud to achieve EHNAC’s OSAP certification for our platform. This certification is a meaningful validation of HealthEC’s efforts to continue to strengthen its information security and compliance practices,” said Louis Hyman, Chief Technology Officer of HealthEC. “Protecting our customers’ most sensitive healthcare data is key to putting our customers at the center of everything we do, and this certification is evidence of this commitment.”

“At HealthEC, we are always mindful of the real lives that exist behind the healthcare data we manage, and the importance of continuing to strengthen our compliance posture,” said Ani Bhat, General Counsel & Compliance Officer. “We believe that being an ethical steward of data is not just good for business, but the right thing to do. We are pleased to receive this certification from EHNAC.”

About HealthEC

HealthEC, LLC, cited as the 2019 Best in KLAS provider of population health management solutions, is on a mission to help its customers succeed with value-based care. HealthEC^®, a single-platform solution, enables personalized healthcare by leveraging the power of connectivity and interoperability: connecting claims and clinical systems, enabling data-driven collaboration between payers and providers, and streamlining care coordination across the healthcare landscape. Organizations are empowered with comprehensive analytics and integrated, role-based tools that translate insights into strategies, address care gaps, and improve quality metrics. To learn more, visit us at Healthec.com, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About EHNAC

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) is a voluntary, self-governing standards development organization (SDO) established to develop standard criteria and accredit organizations that electronically exchange healthcare data. These entities include accountable care organizations, data registries, electronic health networks, EPCS vendors, e-prescribing solution providers, financial services firms, health information exchanges, health information service providers, management service organizations, medical billers, outsourced service providers, payers, practice management system vendors, third-party administrators and trusted networks. The Commission is an authorized HITRUST External Assessor, making it the only organization able to provide both EHNAC accreditation as well as to conduct HITRUST CSF assessment services.

EHNAC was founded in 1995 and is a tax-exempt 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization. Guided by peer evaluation, the EHNAC accreditation process promotes quality service, innovation, cooperation and open competition in healthcare. To learn more, visit www.ehnac.org, contact [email protected], or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

HealthEC Contact:

Laura Porto
732.652.1519
[email protected]

• 22nd Century’s Proprietary VLN^® King and VLN^® Menthol King Poised to Play a Central Role in Making FDA’s Reduced Nicotine Mandate Feasible

• MRTP Authorization of VLN^® King and VLN^® Menthol King Will Serve as a Major Catalyst for the FDA to Accelerate Rule

• Containing 95% Less Nicotine than Traditional Cigarettes, VLN^® is the Only Combustible Tobacco Product that Complies with the FDA’s Proposed Nicotine Cap
  

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y., April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE American: XXII), a leading plant-based, biotechnology company that is focused on tobacco harm reduction, very low nicotine content tobacco, and hemp/cannabis research, announced today that it continues to be confident on the renewal of the FDA’s proposed reduced nicotine mandate that would make all cigarettes “minimally or non-addictive.” By way of support, four former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners, Robert M. Califf, M.D. MACC; Scott Gottlieb, M.D.; Peggy Hamburg, M.D.; and, Jane Henney, M.D., spoke on a recent panel and were vocal in their endorsement of the mandate to limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to levels already achieved by 22nd Century’s reduced nicotine content cigarettes, VLN^®.

During the panel discussion, Dr. Gottlieb, who first established the FDA’s Comprehensive Plan for Tobacco and Nicotine Regulation in 2017, remarked: “[c]ertainly if a Republican administration can begin a process to regulate nicotine in combustible tobacco, I suspect that it’s going to be taken forward by a Democratic administration.” Dr. Hamburg also pointed out that, “[n]ow is the time…to really address a whole range of [tobacco] issues that [the] FDA is now empowered to act on.”

“Coming from such a group of experienced and authoritative assembly of public health figures, the comments made during the STAT webcast are a powerful endorsement of the FDA’s plan to implement a reduced nicotine product standard,” said James A. Mish, chief executive officer at 22nd Century. “Over the past year, COVID-19 has brought the criticality of respiratory health to the forefront of public concerns. The FDA has the authority and responsibility to change the trajectory of public health in the U.S., save millions of lives, and protect future generations from addiction by enacting a reduced nicotine mandate. We believe that the Agency will advance their Comprehensive Plan and soon announce its simple, yet powerful reduced nicotine product standard. This will be a grand slam for 22nd Century.”

22nd Century shares the former FDA Commissioners’ enthusiasm. With the recent change in administration at the White House, and Democratic control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Company believes there will be a high focus on improving public health moving forward. The Biden administration is placing public health as a top priority and recently issued a proclamation “strongly committing to improving the prevention and treatment of cancer.” In addition, the appointment of Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a long-time proponent of tougher regulation for the tobacco industry, further points to a favorable political climate for the renewal of the reduced nicotine mandate that is projected to help more than five million people to quit smoking within the first year of implementation and save more than eight million American lives by the end of the century.

Made from tobacco engineered by 22nd Century to contain 95% less nicotine than traditional cigarettes, VLN^® is the only combustible product that complies with the FDA’s proposed nicotine cap. Numerous independent scientific studies, funded largely by the FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other U.S. federal government agencies, have demonstrated that using reduced nicotine content tobacco cigarettes helps smokers reduce their nicotine exposure and dependence, smoke fewer cigarettes per day, increase their number of smoke-free days, and double their quit attempts – all with minimal or no evidence of nicotine withdrawal or compensatory smoking.

The Company believes that it is in the final stages of the FDA’s application process to obtain a Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) designation for VLN^®. The designation will allow 22nd Century to communicate key features of VLN^® King and VLN^® Menthol King, including a headline claim of “95% less nicotine.” Although VLN^® contains just 0.5 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco, VLN^® tastes, smells, and smokes like a conventional cigarette. This disruptive product is an innovative alternative to addictive, traditional cigarettes and will help adult smokers reduce their exposure to nicotine. 22nd Century is fully prepared and eager to launch its VLN^® cigarettes within 90 days of receiving authorization from the FDA and believes that a MRTP designation will serve as a catalyst for its VLN^® brand and tobacco franchise. The Company also remains willing to license its technology to enable every cigarette manufacturer to comply with the FDA’s proposed nicotine cap that will significantly reduce the harm caused by smoking and protect future generations from ever becoming addicted to cigarettes.

About 22nd Century Group, Inc.

22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE American: XXII) is a leading plant biotechnology company focused on technologies that alter the level of nicotine in tobacco plants and the level of cannabinoids in hemp/cannabis plants through genetic engineering, gene-editing, and modern plant breeding. 22nd Century’s primary mission in tobacco is to reduce the harm caused by smoking through the Company’s proprietary reduced nicotine content tobacco cigarettes – containing 95% less nicotine than conventional cigarettes. The Company’s primary mission in hemp/cannabis is to develop and commercialize proprietary hemp/cannabis plants with valuable cannabinoid profiles and desirable agronomic traits.

Learn more at xxiicentury.com, on Twitter @_xxiicentury, and on LinkedIn.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements typically contain terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “consider,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “explore,” “foresee,” “goal,” “guidance,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “preliminary,” “probable,” “project,” “promising,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth in “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 11, 2021. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Investor Relations & Media Contact:

Mei Kuo
Director, Communications & Investor Relations
22nd Century Group, Inc.
(716) 300-1221
[email protected]