Artelo Biosciences Expands Stony Brook Commercial License Agreement for FABP5 Platform for Development of Lead Cancer, Pain and Inflammation Compounds

Recent $4.2 Million NCI Grant for FABP5 Inhibitor Development Demonstrates Validation of the Platform

LA JOLLA, Calif., June 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARTL), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapeutics that modulate the endocannabinoid system, today announced that it has expanded its existing research and worldwide commercial license agreement with The Research Foundation For The State University of New York, Stony Brook. Artelo has obtained exclusive rights to recently developed, third-generation fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5) inhibitors.  The company plans to select a lead cancer therapeutic compound from these compounds, as well as to identify additional candidates for pain, inflammation and other conditions, facilitating a potentially significant expansion to the company’s development pipeline.  Many of the third generation FABP5 inhibitors have shown greater potency and/or selectivity to FABP5.

“We continue to believe in the promise of lipid signaling pathways as a target for cancer therapeutics. Expanding our agreement with Stony Brook to include additional third-generation FABP5 inhibitors that have shown encouraging pre-clinical results in cancer, inflammation and pain, provides a significant opportunity to both explore this potential and strategically prime our development pipeline,” stated Gregory D. Gorgas, Artelo’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Stony Brook’s recently awarded NCI grant further validates the FABP5 approach while providing non-dilutive funding to advance the development of product candidates arising from the platform. Our exclusive worldwide license to these product candidates will enable meaningful value creation, including seeking intellectual property protection and discussions with potential partners to help accelerate the development of our FABP5 inhibitors in multiple indications.”

Fatty acid binding proteins are intracellular lipid chaperones, and transport fatty acids, including the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, as well as related N-acylethanolamines. Inhibition of FABP5 has been shown to suppress the growth and migration of breast and prostate cancers in preclinical models, and may have the potential to treat pain, based on animal studies where elevated levels of endocannabinoids showed beneficial effects on measures of stress, pain, and inflammation.