UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (760) 943-1689

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

N/A

(Title of class)

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 the Securities Act. Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the last 90 days. Yes ☒  No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐   No ☒

The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant on February 29, 2020, was $2,970,416 based on a $1.07 average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock as of the latest practicable date.

15,111,587 shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of October 30, 2020.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

These statements contain forward-looking statements that are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Some of the statements in the section captioned “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Business,” and elsewhere contain forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expects,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” or the negative of these terms or other comparable expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes, although not all forward-looking statements contain these terms.

These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

In addition, you should refer to the “Risk Factors” section for a discussion of other important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

In addition, statements such as “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this filing, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.

Our audited financial statements are stated in United States Dollars (US$) and are prepared in accordance accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and the related notes that appear elsewhere in this annual report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed below and elsewhere in this quarterly report.

In this annual report, unless otherwise specified, all dollar amounts are expressed in United States dollars and all references to “common shares” refer to the common shares in our capital stock.

As used in this annual report, the terms “we”, “us”, “our” and “our company” mean Artelo Biosciences, Inc., and our wholly owned subsidiaries, Trinity Reliant Ventures Limited, in Ireland, Artelo Biosciences Limited, in England and Wales, and Artelo Biosciences Corporation, in Canada, unless otherwise indicated.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Corporate Overview

We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing treatments intended to modulate endogenous signalling pathways, including the endocannabinoid system (the “ECS”), a family of receptors and neurotransmitters that form a biochemical communication network throughout the body. Our board of directors and management team is highly experienced and has a successful history of development, regulatory approval and commercialization of pharmaceuticals.

Our product candidate pipeline broadly leverages leading scientific methodologies, balances risk across mechanism of action and stages of development and represents a comprehensive approach in utilizing the power of the ECS to develop pharmaceuticals for patients with unmet healthcare needs. We are currently developing a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targeting synthetic small molecule program, ART27.13, as a treatment for anorexia associated with cancer in a planned Phase 1b/2a trial, ART26.12, which a small molecule inhibitor of Fatty Acid Binding Protein 5 (FABP5), being studied both as a cancer therapeutic and in anxiety-related disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and ART12.11, a solid-state composition of cannabidiol (“CBD cocrystal”). The global coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 has created uncertainties in the expected timelines for clinical stage biopharmaceutical companies such as us, and because of such uncertainties, we are unable to accurately predict our expected timelines at this time.

We are currently developing two patent protected product candidates that we obtained through our in-licensing activities. Our first program is a synthetic, small molecule GPCR agonist program, ART27.13, being developed for cancer-related anorexia. ART27.13 is a peripherally-restricted high-potency dual CB₁ and CB₂ receptor agonist, which was originally developed by AstraZeneca plc (“AstraZeneca”). We have exercised our option to exclusively license this product candidate through the NEOMED Institute, a Canadian not-for-profit corporation, renamed adMare in June 2019 (“NEOMED”). In Phase 1 single dose studies in healthy volunteers and a multiple ascending dose study in individuals with chronic low back pain conducted by AstraZeneca, ART27.13 exhibited an attractive pharmacokinetic and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profile and was well tolerated within the target exposure range. It also exhibited dose-dependent and potentially clinically meaningful increases in body weight. Importantly, the changes in body weight were not associated with fluid retention or other adverse effects and occurred at exposures without central nervous system (“CNS”) side effects. Discussions with U.K. regulators indicate there is a potential pathway for development of ART27.13 for the treatment of cancer-related anorexia, which affects approximately 60% of advanced stage cancer patients.  We are expecting to commence enrollment in our Phase 1b/2a clinical study of cancer-related anorexia with ART27.13 by year-end. At present we do not foresee a delay due to the impact of COVID-19; however, we are aware the situation could change and we are working to mitigate any adverse effects that may materialize due to the pandemic.

Our second in-licensed program is a platform of small-molecule inhibitors for fatty acid binding protein 5 (“FABP5”), based upon scientific developments achieved at Stony Brook University (“SBU”) which we have designated ART26.12. To date, SBU has received nearly $4 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to begin developing these candidates. Fatty acid binding proteins (“FABPs”) are attractive therapeutic targets, however, their high degree of similarity among the various types has proven challenging to the creation of drugs targeting specific FABPs. FABP5 is believed to specifically target and regulate one of the body’s endogenous cannabinoids, anandamide (“AEA”). While searching for a FABP5 inhibitor to regulate AEA, we believe researchers at SBU discovered the chemistry for creating a highly specific and potent small molecule inhibitor of FABP5. In addition to its potential as a synthetic endocannabinoid modulator, FABP5 is also an attractive target for cancer drug development. Large amounts of human clinical epidemiological and animal model data support FABP5 as a well validated oncology therapeutic target, especially for triple negative breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer. We licensed exclusive world-wide rights to these inhibitors from SBU. The program is in the final stages of lead optimization, and we plan to initiate regulatory enabling studies thereafter. We anticipate clinical studies in cancer could begin in the second half of 2021 or the first half of 2022, depending on the ongoing impact of COVID-19. The COVID-19 global pandemic has created uncertainties in the expected timelines for clinical stage biopharmaceutical companies such as us, and because of such uncertainties, we are unable to accurately predict our expected timelines at this time.

In addition to our in-licenced programs, we have our own internal discovery research initiatives, which resulted in creating ART12.11, a proprietary cocrystal composition of CBD. The crystal structure of cannabidiol (“CBD”) is known to exhibit polymorphism, or the ability to manifest in different forms. Polymorphism can adversely affect stability, dissolution, and bioavailability of a drug product and thus affect its quality, safety, and efficacy. We believe our cocrystal exists as a single crystal form and as such is anticipated to have advantages over other forms of CBD that exhibit polymorphism. Anticipated advantages of this single crystal structure include improved stability, solubility, and a more consistent absorption profile. We believe these features will result in more consistent bioavailability and may lead to improved safety and efficacy.

Presently, we have one U.S. patent, one U.S. patent application, and two foreign patent applications directed to our cocrystal composition of CBD. Composition claims are generally known in the pharmaceutical industry as the most desired type of intellectual property and should provide for long lasting market exclusivity for our synthetic CBD cocrystal drug product candidate. In addition, due to the reasons outlined above, we believe that our synthetic CBD cocrystal will have superior pharmaceutical properties compared to non-cocrystal CBD products under development at other competing companies to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other indications.

We are developing our product candidates in accordance with traditional drug development standards and will make them available to the general public via prescription or physician orders only after obtaining marketing authorization from a regulatory authority, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”). Our management team has experience developing and commercializing ethical pharmaceutical products, including several first-in-class therapeutics. Based upon our current management’s capabilities and the future talent we may attract, we expect to retain rights to internally develop and commercialize products, however, we may seek collaborations with partners in the biopharmaceutical industry when that strategy serves to maximize value for our stockholders.

Product Candidate Pipeline:

Therapeutics market size based upon total global annual prescription drug sales in 2016, 2017 or 2018. 

Background

The ECS is composed of cannabinoid receptors, endogenous receptor ligands (“endocannabinoids”) and their associated transporter mechanisms, as well as enzymes responsible for the synthesis and degradation of endocannabinoids, and has emerged as a considerable target for pharmacotherapy approaches of numerous human diseases. As a widespread modulatory system, the ECS plays important roles in the CNS, development, synaptic plasticity, and the response to endogenous and environmental factors.

The modulation of the ECS can be effected by using selective or non-selective agonists, partial agonists, inverse agonists, and antagonists of the cannabinoid receptors, CB₁ and CB₂. The CB₁ receptor is distributed in brain areas associated with motor control, emotional responses, motivated behavior and energy homeostasis. In the periphery, CB₁ is ubiquitously expressed in the adipose tissue, pancreas, liver, gastrointestinal tract, skeletal muscles, heart and the reproductive system. The CB₂ receptor is mainly expressed in the immune system regulating its functions, and is upregulated in response to tissue stress or damage in most cell types. The ECS is therefore involved in pathophysiological conditions in both the central and peripheral tissues.

The actions of endogenous ligands can be enhanced or attenuated by targeting mechanisms that are associated with their transport within the cellular and extra cellular matrix as well as their synthesis and breakdown. Small molecule chemical modulators of the ECS can be derived from the cannabis plant (“phytocannabinoids”), can be semi-synthetic derivatives of phytocannabinoids or endocannabinoids, or can be completely synthetic new chemical entities. We plan to develop approaches within our portfolio that address receptor binding and endocannabinoid transport modulation using only synthetic new chemical entities. Future approaches may also involve targeting synthesis or breakdown enzymes.

ECS targeting cannabinoid-based medicines are already approved and used to treat numerous medical conditions. The ECS is further implicated in many disease states within the peer reviewed literature including conditions which involve the regulation of food intake, central nervous system, pain, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, immune and inflammation, behavioral, antiproliferative and reproductive functions. These areas of ECS pathophysiology are aligned with our therapeutic areas of focus: pain, inflammation, anorexia, and cancer.

Business Strategy

Our objective is to develop and commercialize ethical pharmaceutical products that provide physicians access to the therapeutic potential of modulators of the ECS and related signaling pathways for their patients. We intend to pursue technologies and compounds that offer promising therapeutic approaches to known and validated signaling pathways, including compounds that promote the effectiveness of the ECS.

Corporate Information and History

We were initially incorporated as Knight Knox Development Corp. in the State of Nevada on May 2, 2011. On November 18, 2016, James Manley, who had served as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and director resigned from the Company. On that date, Peter O’Brien assumed the positions of President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and director of the Company.

On November 11, 2016, we registered a wholly owned subsidiary in Ireland, Trinity Reliant Ventures Limited and on June 2, 2017 we registered a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK, Trinity Research and Development Limited, to oversee our European operations. To date, activities within the subsidiary have consisted of raising equity capital and performing research and development activities in the United Kingdom.

On January 19, 2017, we changed of our name to Reactive Medical, Inc.

On April 3, 2017, Mr. O’Brien resigned from the positions of President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of our Company and the Board appointed Gregory D. Gorgas to assume those positions. At that time, Mr. Gorgas also became a member of our Board. Mr. O’Brien retained his seat on the Board and was appointed Senior Vice President – European Operations. Mr. O’Brien has since resigned from the Board on March 1, 2019.

On April 14, 2017, we changed our name to Artelo Biosciences, Inc. The new name more accurately informed our stockholders about our focus and business strategy. The name “Artelo” was selected to portray our focus on improving and/or administering products distributed via arterial blood flow, and “Biosciences” to more accurately reflect our focus on drug development, including those derived from or synthetic mimetics of botanically sourced chemicals.

On May 2, 2017, we increased the size of our Board from two members to four members and appointed Connie Matsui and Steven Kelly as members of our Board.

On June 2, 2017, we registered a wholly owned subsidiary in England and Wales, Trinity Research & Development Limited.

On July 31, 2017, we closed a private placement offering of 244,033 Series A Units (the “Series A Units”) of our equity securities at a price of $3.20 per Unit for aggregate proceeds of $780,921 (the “Series A Offering”). Each Series A Unit consists of: (i) one (1) share of common stock, and (ii) one (1) Series A Common Stock Purchase Warrant to purchase one (1) share of common stock at a price of $8.00 per share for a period of five (5) years from the issue date (the “Series A Common Stock Warrants”). The Series A Common Stock Warrants cannot be exercised on a cashless basis by non-affiliates. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Subscription Agreement (the “Series A Subscription Agreement”) occurred on July 31, 2017. As part of the Series A Offering, the Company and the investors entered into a Series A Registration Rights Agreement, which requires the Company to register for resale all of the shares of common stock sold as part of the Series A Offering, including those issuable upon exercise of the Series A Common Stock Warrants, within one hundred eighty (180) days from the closing of the Series A Offering.

On July 31, 2017, Douglas Blayney, M.D. was appointed to the Board. On September 20, 2017, Georgia Erbez and R. Martin Emanuele, Ph.D. were appointed to the Board.

On March 23, 2018, we closed a private placement offering of 163,606 Series B Units (the “Series B Units”) of our equity securities at a price of $5.20 per Series B Unit for aggregate proceeds of $850,785 (the “Series B Offering”). Each Series B Unit consists of: (i) one (1) share of common stock, and (ii) one (1) Series B Common Stock Purchase Warrant to purchase one (1) share of common stock at a price of $12.00 per share for a period of five (5) years from the issue date (the “Series B Common Stock Warrants”). The Series B Common Stock Warrants cannot be exercised on a cashless basis by non-affiliates. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Subscription Agreement (the “Series B Subscription Agreement”) occurred on March 23, 2018. As part of the Series B Offering, the Company and the investors entered into a Series B Registration Rights Agreement, which requires the Company to register for resale all of the shares of common stock sold as part of the Series B Offering, including those issuable upon exercise of the Series B Common Stock Warrants, within one hundred eighty (180) days from the closing of the Series B Offering.

On September 12, 2018, we closed a private placement offering of 87,629 Series C Units (the “Series C Units”) of our equity securities at a price of $6.00 per Series C Unit for aggregate proceeds of $525,828 (the “Series C Offering”). Each Series C Unit consists of: (i) one (1) share of common stock, and (ii) one (1) Series C Common Stock Purchase Warrant to purchase one (1) share of common stock at a price of $14.00 per share for a period of five (5) years from the issue date (the “Series C Common Stock Warrants”). The Series C Common Stock Warrants cannot be exercised on a cashless basis by non-affiliates. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Subscription Agreement (the “Series C Subscription Agreement”) occurred on September 12, 2018. As part of the Series C Offering, the Company and the investors entered into a Series C Registration Rights Agreement, which requires the Company to register for resale all of the shares of common stock sold as part of the Series C Offering, including those issuable upon exercise of the Series C Common Stock Warrants, within one hundred eighty (180) days from the closing of the Series C Offering.

On January 30, 2019, we closed a private placement offering of 209,635 Series D Units (the “Series D Units”) of our equity securities at a price of $6.00 per Series D Unit for aggregate proceeds of $1,257,905 (the “Series D Offering”). Each Series D Unit consists of: (i) one (1) share of common stock, and (ii) one (1) Series D Common Stock Purchase Warrant to purchase one (1) share of common stock at a price of $14.00 per share for a period of five (5) years from the issue date (the “Series D Common Stock Warrants”). The Series D Common Stock Warrants cannot be exercised on a cashless basis by non-affiliates. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Subscription Agreement (the “Series D Subscription Agreement”) occurred on January 30, 2019. As part of the Series D Offering, the Company and the investors entered into a Series D Registration Rights Agreement, which requires the Company to register for resale all of the shares of common stock sold as part of the Series D Offering, including those issuable upon exercise of the Series D Common Stock Warrants, within one hundred eighty (180) days from the closing of the Series D Offering.

On April 25, 2019, we held an initial closing of a private placement offering of our Series E Units (the “Series E Units”). On May 24, 2019, we held a final closing of our Series E Units. We sold an aggregate total of 54,940 Series E Units at a price of $7.60 per Series E Unit for aggregate proceeds of $417,732 (the “Series E Offering”). Each Series E Unit consists of: (i) one (1) share of common stock; and (ii) a Series E Common Stock Purchase Warrant to purchase one-half (1/2) share of common stock at a price of $16.00 per share for a period of three (3) years from the issue date. The Series E Common Stock Warrants cannot be exercised on a cashless basis by non-affiliates. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by the Subscription Agreement (the “Series E Subscription Agreement”) occurred on May 24, 2019. As part of the Series E Offering, the Company and the investors entered into a Series E Registration Rights Agreement, which requires the Company to register for resale all of the shares of common stock sold as part of the Series E Offering, including those issuable upon exercise of the Series E Common Stock Warrants, within one hundred eighty (180) days from the closing of Series E the Offering.

On June 25, 2019, the Company sold an aggregate of 1,300,813 units with each unit consisting of one (1) share of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), and a warrant to purchase one (1) share of Common Stock at an exercise price equal to $6.4575 per share (the “Warrants”) pursuant to that certain Underwriting Agreement dated as of June 21, 2019 (the “Underwriting Agreement”) with Maxim Group LLC (“Maxim”), as representative for the several underwriters named in Schedule I thereto (the “Underwriters”). In addition, the Company granted the Underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to 195,121 additional shares of Common Stock, or Warrants, or any combination thereof, to cover over-allotments, if any. The Common Stock and the Warrants were offered and sold to the public (the “Offering”) pursuant to the Company’s registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-230658), filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), on April 1, 2019, as amended, and which became effective on June 20, 2019. The offering price to the public was $6.15 per unit. In addition, simultaneously with the closing of the Offering the Company sold 191,102 Warrants upon the partial exercise of the Underwriters’ over-allotment option. The Company received gross proceeds of approximately $8,000,000, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated Offering expenses.

Pursuant to the Underwriting Agreement, the Company also agreed to issue to the Underwriters warrants (the “Underwriter’s Warrants”) to purchase up to a total of 104,065 shares of Common Stock (8% of the shares of Common Stock sold in the Offering). The Underwriter’s Warrants are exercisable at $6.765 per share of Common Stock and have a term of three years. Pursuant to the customary FINRA rules, the Underwriter’s Warrants are subject to a 180-day lock-up pursuant to which the representative will not sell, transfer, assign, pledge, or hypothecate these warrants or the securities underlying these warrants, nor will it engage in any hedging, short sale, derivative, put, or call transaction that would result in the effective economic disposition of the warrants or the underlying securities for a period of 180 days from the date of the prospectus relating to the Offering.

In connection with the Offering described above, the Common Stock and the Warrants began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on June 21, 2019 under the trading symbols “ARTL” and “ARTLW,” respectively.

The Company filed a Certificate of Change with the Secretary of State of Nevada, pursuant to which on June 20, 2019 the Company effected a one-for-eight reverse split of its authorized and issued and outstanding Common Stock (the “Reverse Stock Split”). The number of authorized shares of Common Stock were reduced from 150,000,000 to 18,750,000 and the number of authorized shares of the Company’s Preferred Stock were reduced from 50,000,000 to 6,250,000.

On December 2, 2019, Georgia Erbez resigned as a member of the Board.

On December 6, 2019, John W. Beck was appointed to the Board.

On October 9, 2020, the Company entered into an Underwriting Agreement (the “Ladenburg Underwriting Agreement”) with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., as representative of the underwriters described in the Ladenburg Underwriting Agreement (the “Underwriter”), pursuant to which the Company issued and sold, in a firm commitment underwritten public offering by the Company (the “Public Offering”), 8,800,000 units (the “Units”), with each Unit consisting of one share of Common Stock and one warrant to purchase one share of Common Stock at an exercise price equal to $0.75 per share of Common Stock that expires on October 14, 2025 (referred to individually as a “Warrant” and collectively as the “Warrants”). Each Unit was offered to the public at an offering price of $0.75 per Unit.

In addition, pursuant to the Ladenburg Underwriting Agreement, the Company granted the Underwriter a 45-day option (the “Overallotment Option”) to purchase up to (i) 1,320,000 additional shares of Common Stock and/or (ii) additional Warrants to purchase up to 1,320,000 additional shares of Common Stock, solely to cover over-allotments. The Overallotment Option was exercised in full on October 9, 2020. 

On October 14, 2020, the Public Offering closed, and the Company issued and sold (i) 10,120,000 shares of Common Stock (which includes 1,320,000 shares of Common Stock sold pursuant to the exercise of the Overallotment Option) and (ii) Warrants to purchase 10,120,000 shares of Common Stock (which includes Warrants to purchase 1,320,000 shares of Common Stock sold pursuant to the exercise of the Overallotment Option), pursuant to the Registration Statement and the Underwriting Agreement. The net proceeds to the Company, after deducting the underwriting discount and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, were approximately $6.58 million.

On October 14, 2020, the Company entered into a warrant agency agreement with the Company’s new transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company LLC, who will also act as the warrant agent for the Company, setting forth the terms and conditions of the Warrants sold in the Public Offering (the “Warrant Agency Agreement”).

Our website address is www.artelobio.com. The contents of our website are not incorporated by reference into this Form 10‑K. We provide free of charge through a link on our website access to our Annual Reports on Form 10‑K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10‑Q and Current Reports on Form 8‑K, as well as amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practical after the reports are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Commission.

Intellectual Property

We are a party to certain license agreements as described below, and, going forward we intend to license intellectual property from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research institutions which would cover research stage and clinical stage assets to build a pipeline of products that modulate the ECS.

Patent Estate and Licenses

The NEOMED Relationship

On December 20, 2017, the Company entered into the NEOMED Agreement, which provides the Company with up to twelve months from the date of receipt by the Company of the required materials to conduct certain non-clinical research studies, diligence and technical analyses with NEOMED’s proprietary therapeutic compound NEO1940, now known as ART27.13 (the “Compound”) and an option (the “NEOMED Option”) for an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize products comprising or containing the Compound. The NEOMED Agreement has an effective date of January 2, 2018 (the “NEOMED Effective Date”). On the NEOMED Effective Date, the Company issued 15,000 shares of its common stock to NEOMED. Pursuant to the terms of the NEOMED Agreement, within 30 days after the NEOMED Effective Date, NEOMED, without additional consideration and at its sole cost, delivered to the Company certain technology transfer materials and the quantity of the Compound substance specified in a research plan, both as set out under the NEOMED Agreement.

On January 4, 2019, the Company entered into the First Amendment to Material and Data Transfer, Option and License Agreement by and between us and NEOMED (the “First Amendment to NEOMED Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to issue NEOMED shares of our common stock as consideration for the waiver by NEOMED of the cash payment of $100,000 that was due to NEOMED on October 1, 2018. The Company issued 61,297 shares of common stock to NEOMED in connection with the Company’s exercise of the NEOMED Option. The Company also issued 11,363 shares of common stock to NEOMED pursuant to the terms of the First Amendment to NEOMED Agreement. Pursuant to the NEOMED Agreement, in July 2019, the Company completed a payment of $1,500,000 to NEOMED for the exercise of the NEOMED Option. Upon exercise of the NEOMED Option, NEOMED provided the Company with an exclusive worldwide license under all of NEOMED’s intellectual property rights covering the Compound (“Licensed IP Rights”) to research, develop, make, have made, use, offer for sale, sell, have sold and import products containing the Compound and otherwise exploit the Licensed IP Rights worldwide, in all fields.

In connection with the NEOMED Agreement, additional potential payments of up to two hundred million dollars will be due upon the achievement of certain regulatory, commercial, and sales milestones. Additionally, we may pay mid-to high-single digit royalties on annual net sales of any product successfully developed.

In clinical development studies with NEOMED’s prior sponsor, NEO1940 was dosed in over 200 subjects. From 2007 to 2008, NEO1940 was evaluated in five phase I clinical trials under its original sponsor, AstraZeneca. NEO1940 was administered orally in 205 patients and its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics were investigated. Four of these studies were single dose or Single Ascending Dose (“SAD”) studies. An initial SAD study was conducted in the UK. The program was completed with another study performed in a Japanese population. The two other single dose studies aimed at measuring a pharmacodynamics effect (Proof-of-Principle or POP studies) on analgesia using the capsaicin test in one case of the third molar extraction model in the other case. The last phase I study was a Multiple Ascending Dose (“MAD”) study, where patients with chronic lower back pain received NEO1940 for a scheduled period of 12 days. Further details of the studies are found in Table 1.

Table 1 – Clinical studies performed with NEO1940

___________

NEO1940 demonstrated, in general, an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in the safety endpoints. The profile of the observed safety effects was generally typical of cannabinoids and the majority of the adverse events were of mild or moderate intensity. A maximum tolerated dose was defined by the frequency and severity of adverse events. A dose dependent increase in body weight was observed in the MAD study. In three out of the five phase I studies, analgesia in acute pain models was also measured as an end-point; no convincing analgesic efficacy was seen in any of these studies.

The Stony Brook University Relationship

On January 18, 2018, we entered into a license agreement (the “Stony Brook Agreement”) with the Research Foundation at Stony Brook University (the “Foundation”) which agreement became effective on that same date. The Stony Brook Agreement provides us with an exclusive license under certain licensed patents of the Foundation (the “Patent Rights”) to develop, make, manufacture, have made, use, sell, have sold, import, export, and offer for sale Patent Product(s) (as defined in the Stony Brook Agreement) and Other Product(s) (as defined in the Stony Brook Agreement) worldwide in all fields, including without limitation the field of human therapeutics. The Stony Brook Agreement has an effective date of January 18, 2018 (the “SBU Effective Date”).

Pursuant to the Stony Brook Agreement, we will pay to the Foundation an upfront fee and annual license maintenance fees, beginning on the first anniversary of the SBU Effective Date and annually thereafter on each anniversary of the SBU Effective Date.

We will also be required to pay a low-single digit royalty on net sales on any patent products (the “Royalties”). The Stony Brook Agreement provides for a reduction of the Royalties in certain cases. We will also pay to the Foundation, beginning in the first calendar year of the first commercial sales, an annual minimum royalty fee (the “Annual Minimum Royalty”). The Annual Minimum Royalty will be credited against the total Royalties due for the calendar year in which the Annual Minimum Royalty.

We will also be required to make payments for the following milestones:

The term of the Stony Brook Agreement commenced on the SBU Effective Date and will continue until the Stony Brook Agreement is terminated in accordance with its terms.

Research & Development

In view of the urgent need for new and more effective drugs, we intend to combine innovative science and accelerated clinical development to create and develop novel therapies using cannabinoid-based medications and similar compounds which modulate the ECS. Our current research and development efforts have been limited to investigative work surrounding cannabinoids, including creating and developing novel and synthetic formulations, and evaluating potential opportunities to license technologies from pharmaceutical companies and leading research institutions. Our principal research efforts to date have been with the University of Nottingham, U.K. and various CRO’s in the U.S. and U.K.

Scientific Approach

We intend to create, acquire, and develop a full spectrum of therapeutics, each of which has the potential to modulate the ECS for human health. The principal scientific platforms of our strategy is as follows:

Our Board and management have experience developing and commercializing ethical pharmaceutical products, including several first-in-class therapeutics. As we build our pipeline and advance our research and clinical development programs, we will evaluate partnerships with large pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies where applicable. Based upon our management’s current experience and the future talent we may attract, we plan to retain rights to develop and commercialize products on our own. However, we will seek to collaborate with biopharmaceutical partners should that strategy serve to maximize the value for our stockholders.

Two of our development programs were licensed from established and respected organizations that have already conducted pre-clinical research and, in some cases, clinical research. Our science and regulatory teams are leveraging this research to speed development and commercialization timelines across our growing portfolio. Our current pipeline encompasses multiple mechanisms for endocannabinoid system modulation. The specific programs that are currently in development are set forth below.

Competition

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and an emphasis on proprietary products. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize may compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may become available in the future.

We plan to compete in the segments of the pharmaceutical, biotechnological and other related markets with therapeutics that demonstrate clinical utility, have an acceptable safety profile and target commercially attractive indications characterized by previously unmet medical need.

Our potential competitors, which include pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies such as Novartis International AG, Helsinn Therapeutics (U.S.), Inc., Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc., GW Pharmaceuticals OLC, Pfizer Inc., and Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. may have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved medicines than we do. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

Our commercial opportunities could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize medicines that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain approval from the FDA or other regulatory agencies for their medicines more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market.

Government Regulation

United States

Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local levels, and in other countries and jurisdictions, including the European Union, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. The processes for obtaining marketing approvals in the United States and in foreign countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

In the United States, the FDA approves and regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the “FDCA”) and the implementing regulations promulgated thereunder. The failure to comply with requirements under the FDCA and other applicable laws at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval may subject an applicant and/or sponsor to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, including refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, imposition of a clinical hold, issuance of warning letters and other types of letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, restitution, disgorgement of profits, or civil or criminal investigations and penalties brought by the FDA and the Department of Justice or other governmental entities.

An applicant seeking approval to market and distribute a new drug product in the United States must typically undertake the following:

Foreign Jurisdictions

In addition to regulations in the United States, a manufacturer is subject to a variety of regulations in foreign jurisdictions to the extent they choose to sell any drug products in those foreign countries. Even if a manufacturer obtains FDA approval of a product, it must still obtain the requisite approvals from regulatory authorities in foreign countries prior to the commencement of clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. For other countries, outside of the European Union, the requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary.

In the European Union, marketing authorizations for medicinal products may be obtained through different procedures founded on the same basic regulatory process. The centralized procedure provides for the grant of a single marketing authorization that is valid for all EU Member States. The centralized procedure is compulsory for medicinal products produced by certain biotechnological processes, products designated as orphan medicinal products, and products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of certain diseases. On the other hand, a decentralized procedure provides for approval by one or more other concerned EU Member States of an assessment of an application for marketing authorization conducted by one EU Member State, known as the reference EU Member State. In accordance with the mutual recognition procedure, the sponsor applies for national marketing authorization in one EU Member State. Upon receipt of this authorization the sponsor can then seek the recognition of this authorization by other EU Member States.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) prohibits U.S. businesses and their representatives from offering to pay, paying, promising to pay or authorizing the payment of money or anything of value to a foreign official in order to influence any act or decision of the foreign official in his or her official capacity or to secure any other improper advantage in order to obtain or retain business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the U.S. to comply with accounting provisions requiring us to maintain books and records, which in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, if any, and to devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements. United States governmental authorities that enforce the FCPA, including the Department of Justice, deem most health care professionals and other employees of foreign hospitals, clinics, research facilities and medical schools in countries with public health care or public education systems to be “foreign officials” under the FCPA. Accordingly, when we interact with foreign health care professionals and researchers in testing and marketing our product candidates abroad, we must have policies and procedures in place sufficient to prevent us and agents acting on our behalf from providing any bribe, gift or gratuity, including excessive or lavish meals, travel or entertainment in connection with marketing our products and services or securing required permits and approvals such as those needed to initiate clinical trials in foreign jurisdictions.

International Laws

In Europe, and throughout the world, other countries have enacted anti-bribery laws and/or regulations similar to the FCPA. Violations of any of these anti-bribery laws, or allegations of such violations, could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and reputation.

There are also international privacy laws that impose restrictions on the access, use, and disclosure of health information. All of these laws may impact our business. Our failure to comply with these privacy laws or significant changes in the laws restricting our ability to obtain required patient information could significantly impact our business and our future business plans.

Other Healthcare Laws

Our business operations and current and future arrangements with healthcare professionals, consultants, customers and patients, may expose us to broadly applicable state and federal fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations. These laws constrain the business and financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell and distribute our products. Such laws include:

Efforts to ensure that our current and future business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities may conclude that some of our business practices, including our promotional activities and interactions with our customers do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law involving applicable healthcare laws. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these or any other health regulatory laws that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other U.S. healthcare programs, additional integrity reporting and oversight obligations, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. Defending against any such actions can be costly, time-consuming and may require significant financial and personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired. If any of the above occur, it could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.

U.S. Healthcare Reform

In the U.S. and some non-U.S. jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could, among other things, affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.

Among policy makers and payors in the U.S. and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality and/or expanding access. For example, in the U.S., in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”), was passed, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both the government and private insurers.

There have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA, as well as recent efforts by the current administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the ACA and we expect such challenges and amendments to continue. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 includes a provision repealing, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate.” In December of 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the individual mandate had been repealed, and on December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional but remanded the case back to the District Court to determine whether other reforms enacted as part of the ACA but not specifically related to the individual mandate or health insurance could be severed from the rest of the ACA so as not to be declared invalid as well. On March 2, 2020, the United States Supreme Court granted the petitions for writs of certiorari to review this case and has allocated one hour for oral arguments, which have been scheduled for November 10, 2020, with a decision likely to follow in the spring of 2021. It is unclear how such litigation and other efforts to repeal and replace the ACA will impact the ACA and our business. Complying with any new legislation or reversing changes implemented under the ACA could be time-intensive and expensive, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the U.S. since the ACA was enacted. These changes include aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011, which began in 2013 and will remain in effect through 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020 and was designed to provide financial support and resources to individuals and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, suspended the 2% Medicare sequester from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 and extended the sequester by one year, through 2030, in order to offset the added expense of the 2020 cancellation.

Further, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal legislation designed to bring transparency to product pricing and reduce the cost of products and services under government healthcare programs, as well as several recent Executive Orders signed by President Trump. Additionally, individual states in the U.S. have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures. Moreover, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what products to purchase and which suppliers will be included in their healthcare programs.

Employees

We currently have three (3) employees, and we also engage multiple contractors, consultants and advisors who provide services on a part-time basis. Our employee, contractors and consultants conduct or oversee all day-to-day operations of the Company including technical development, research, and administration. We have no unionized employees. We currently have no retainers or minimum financial commitments with any of our consultants, contractors or service providers. We consider relations with our employee, consultants, and contractors to be satisfactory.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS, INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT CANDIDATES

Our ability to continue our operations requires that we raise additional capital and our operations could be curtailed if we are unable to obtain the additional funding as or when needed.

To continue to fund operations, we will need to secure additional funding. We may obtain additional financing in the future through the issuance of our common stock, through other equity or debt financings or through collaborations or partnerships with other companies. We may not be able to raise additional capital on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Further, any failure to raise capital as and when needed could compromise our ability to execute on our business plan, and we may be forced to liquidate our assets. In such a scenario, the values we receive for our assets in liquidation or dissolution could be significantly lower than the values reflected in our financial statements.

We will need to raise additional financing to support our business objectives. We cannot be sure we will be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us when needed, or at all. If we are unable to obtain additional financing to meet our needs, our operations may be adversely affected or terminated.

Since our inception, we have used substantial amounts of cash to fund our operations and expect our expenses to increase substantially in the foreseeable future as developing our product candidates and conducting clinical trials will require substantial amounts of capital. We will also require a significant additional amount of capital to commercialize any products that are approved in the future.

Our current financial resources are limited. We will need to raise additional funds in the near future in order to satisfy our working capital and capital expenditure requirements. We may raise additional funds through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic partnerships or alliances, receivables or royalty financings or corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. To the extent that we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities or convertible debt, your ownership will be diluted and the terms of such financings may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of existing stockholders. Any future debt financing into which we enter may impose upon us covenants that restrict our operations, including limitations on our ability to incur liens or additional debt, pay dividends, redeem our stock, make certain investments and engage in certain merger, consolidation or asset sale transactions. These restrictions could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business and may result in liens being placed on our assets and intellectual property. Debt financings may also be coupled with an equity component, such as warrants to purchase shares, which could also result in dilution of our existing stockholders’ ownership. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business and may result in liens being placed on our assets and intellectual property. If we were to default on such indebtedness, we could lose such assets and intellectual property. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates. In addition, if we raise additional funds through corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements, it may be necessary to relinquish potentially valuable rights to products or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. Our future capital requirements may depend on a wide range of factors, including, but not limited to:

If we are unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may be required to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue one or more of our product development programs or commercialization efforts, or other aspects of our business plan. We also may be required to relinquish, license or otherwise dispose of rights to products or product candidates that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. In addition, our ability to achieve profitability or to respond to competitive pressures would be significantly limited.

If we fail to comply with our obligations under our patent licenses with third parties, we could lose license rights that are vital to our business.

We are a party to license agreements with NEOMED Institute, a Canadian not-for-profit corporation, renamed adMare in June 2019 (“NEOMED”) and the Research Foundation at Stony Brook University, pursuant to which we in-license key patents and patent applications for our product candidates. These existing licenses impose various diligence, milestone payment, royalty and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with these obligations, our licensors may have the right to terminate the licenses, in which event we would not be able to develop or market the products covered by such licensed intellectual property. In particular, on April 24, 2019, we exercised our option (the “Option Exercise”) pursuant to the Material and Data Transfer, Option and License Agreement with NEOMED dated as of December 20, 2017, as amended on January 4, 2019 (the “NEOMED Agreement”). If we are found in the future not to be in compliance with the NEOMED Agreement, our license agreement with the Research Foundation at Stony Brook University (the “Stony Brook Agreement”), or any other license agreements it could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. If we fail to comply with any of our license obligations, our licensors may have the right to terminate these agreements, in which event we might not be able to develop and market any product candidate that is covered by these agreements. Termination of these licenses or reduction or elimination of our licensed rights may result in our having to negotiate new or reinstated licenses with less favorable terms. We may enter into additional licenses in the future and if we fail to comply with obligations under those agreements, we could suffer similar consequences.

Changes in regulatory requirements or other unforeseen circumstances may impact the timing of the initiation or completion of our clinical trials.

Changes in regulatory requirements and guidance may occur, and we may need to amend clinical trial protocols or our development plan to reflect these changes. Amendments may require resubmitting clinical trial protocols to the FDA or other similar authorities in other jurisdictions and institutional review boards (“IRBs”) for reexamination, which may impact the costs, timing or successful completion of our clinical trials. If we experience delays in completion of, or if we terminate any planned clinical trials, the commercial prospects for product candidates may be harmed, and the ability to generate product revenues will be delayed. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of product candidates.

The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Artelo’s clinical trial plans, product development, and how a regulatory body reviews study data is difficult to predict, but the pandemic may have a material adverse impact on Artelo’s business operations, clinical trial plans, and product development, including delays in clinical trial and study participant recruitment, delays in regulatory approval of our product candidates, and the need to expend additional costs and resources. The pandemic’s impact on the U.S. and global economy and drug product manufacturing and supply chain may also adversely affect Artelo’s clinical trial plans and drug development. Additionally, depending on the duration of shelter-in-place, social distancing, and similar measures, as well as business closures and stresses on healthcare systems and our clinical trial sites, Artelo’s ability to recruit participants for its clinical trials may be significantly impacted. Artelo may not be able to commence or complete its clinical trials as currently planned. Artelo also may be required to significantly modify its study protocol, policies and procedures in order to address or accommodate patients and study site needs during the pandemic or some time after the immediate concerns have been reduced. Such changes can include modification to protocol inclusion and exclusion criteria, extending the time for patient follow up visits, using telemedicine, phone interviews and other technology to monitor patient safety, all of which will need to be approved by applicable IRBs and regulatory authorities.

We face many of the risks and difficulties frequently encountered by relatively new companies with respect to our operations.

Our business objective is to pursue the licensing, development and commercialization of therapeutic treatments that are associated with modulation of the endocannabinoid system. We have limited operating history as a medical research company engaged in biopharmaceutical research upon which an evaluation of our Company and our prospects could be based. There can be no assurance that our management will be successful in being able to commercially exploit the results, if any, from our product development research projects or that we will be able to develop products and treatments that will enable us to generate sufficient revenues to meet our expenses or to achieve and/or maintain profitability.

If we are unable to raise sufficient capital as needed, we may be required to reduce the scope of our planned research and development activities, which could harm our business plans, financial condition and operating results, or cease our operations entirely, in which case, you will lose all your investment.

Even if one or more of our product candidates is approved for commercial sale, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any approved product candidate and we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, resulting in limited or no profitability in the future. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital for the foreseeable future. Any failure to become and remain profitable may adversely affect the market price of our securities, our ability to raise capital and our future viability.

We have no mature product candidates and may not be successful in licensing any.

One of the key elements of our business strategy is to license technologies or compounds from companies and/or research institutions. We may not be able to identify technologies or compounds that are commercially viable, or that are available for licensure under acceptable terms. If we are able to identify suitable technologies or compounds, we may be unable to successfully negotiate a license, or maintain the licensing and collaboration arrangements necessary to develop and commercialize any product candidates. We may be unable to compete with companies that are more established than us and have greater financial resources than us for licenses to available technologies and compounds. Even if we are successful in licensing programs, we may not be able to satisfy development requirements should we be unable to raise additional funding.

Any failure to establish or maintain licensing or collaboration arrangements on favorable terms could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates, which can adversely affect our business prospects and financial condition.

Even if we are successful in licensing lead product candidates, resource limitations may limit our ability to successfully develop them.

Pharmaceutical development requires substantial capital, skilled personnel and infrastructure to successfully develop products for the market. The success of our business is highly dependent on our ability to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize products. We do not currently have the financial resources to fund the development of any lead product candidate and there is no assurance that we can raise enough capital to fund product development. If we are unable to raise additional capital, we will not be able to pursue the development of any products and may have to relinquish rights to any products we may have licensed.

We do not have any therapeutic products that are approved for commercial sale. Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and become profitable depends significantly on our success in a number of factors.

We currently do not have any therapeutic products that are approved for commercial sale. We have not received, and do not expect to receive for at least the next several years, if at all, any revenues from the commercialization of our product candidates, if approved in the future. To obtain revenues from sales of our product candidates that are significant or large enough to achieve profitability, we must succeed, either alone or with third parties, in developing, obtaining regulatory approval for, manufacturing and marketing therapies with commercial potential. Our ability to generate revenue and achieve profitability depends significantly on our success in many areas, including:

We have very limited operating history and capabilities.

Although our business was formed in 2011, we have had very limited operations in our current field of interest. We do not currently have the ability to perform the functions necessary to develop any product candidates. The successful development of any product candidates will require us to perform a variety of functions including, but not limited to:

Our operations continue to be focused on acquiring, developing and securing our proprietary technology and undertaking preclinical and clinical trials of our products.

We expect our financial condition and operating results to continue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. We will need to transition from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of undertaking commercial activities. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and may not be successful in such a transition.

Artelo’s operations and financial results could be adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 (and which causes a disease called “COVID-19”), was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, resulting in significant disruptions to manufacturing, supply chain, markets, and travel world-wide, especially businesses involving activities or operations in China. On January 30, 2020, the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (the “WHO”) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and on March 12, 2020 the WHO announced the outbreak was a pandemic. While the extent of the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results is uncertain, a continued and prolonged public health crisis such as the COVID-19 outbreak could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and operating results. Due to the global pandemic, our recruiting of clinical trial participants could also be slowed or delayed, or in a more severe scenario, our business, financial condition and operating results could be more severely affected. Given the dynamic nature of these circumstances, the duration of any business disruption or potential impact to our business resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to predict, but it may increase our costs or expenses.

We may not be able to file Investigational New Drug applications to commence clinical trials on the timelines we expect, and even if we are able to, the FDA may not permit us to proceed in a timely manner, or at all.

Prior to commencing clinical trials in the United States for any of our product candidates, we may be required to have an Investigational New Drug application (“IND”) in effect for each product candidate. Submission of an IND may not result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to begin and, once begun, issues may arise that will require us to suspend or terminate such clinical trials. Once an IND is submitted, the sponsor must wait 30 calendar days before initiating the clinical trial, during which FDA will review the IND and either provide comments or allow the trial to proceed. Additionally, even if relevant regulatory authorities agree with the design and implementation of the clinical trials set forth in an IND or a clinical trial application (the equivalent of an IND in foreign jurisdictions), these regulatory authorities may change their requirements in the future. The fact that we are pursuing novel technologies may also exacerbate these risks with respect to our product candidates, and as a result we may not meet our anticipated clinical development timelines.

Use of our product candidates could be associated with adverse side effects.

As with most biopharmaceutical products, use of our product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity and frequency. Side effects or adverse events associated with the use of our product candidates may be observed at any time, including in clinical trials or once a product is commercialized, and any such side effects or adverse events may negatively affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval or market our product candidates. Side effects such as toxicity or other safety issues associated with the use of our product candidates could require us to perform additional studies or halt development or sale of these product candidates or expose us to product liability lawsuits which will harm our business.

The emergence of unforeseen safety issues or adverse events may lead to regulatory agencies requiring us to conduct additional preclinical or clinical trials regarding the safety and efficacy of our product candidates, which we have not planned or anticipated. We cannot assure you that we will resolve any issues related to any product-related adverse events to the satisfaction of the FDA or any regulatory agency in a timely manner or ever, which could harm our business, prospects and financial condition. We may also inadvertently fail to report adverse events we become aware of within the prescribed timeframe. We may also fail to appreciate that we have become aware of a reportable adverse event, especially if it is not reported to us as an adverse event or if it is an adverse event that is unexpected or removed in time from the use of our products. If we fail to comply with our reporting obligations, the FDA or other foreign regulatory agencies could take action including criminal prosecution, the imposition of civil monetary penalties, seizure of our products, or delay in approval or clearance of future products.

Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, results of earlier studies and clinical trials may not be predictive of future clinical trial results, and our clinical trials may fail to adequately demonstrate substantial evidence of safety and efficacy of our product candidates.

Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. A failure of one or more of our clinical trials can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. There is a high failure rate for drugs proceeding through clinical trials, and product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the required safety and efficacy despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. Even if our clinical trials are completed, the results may not be sufficient to support obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates.

We do not know whether future clinical trials, if any, will begin on time, need to be redesigned, enroll an adequate number of patients on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical trials can be delayed, suspended or terminated by us, regulatory authorities, clinical trial investigators, and ethics committees for a variety of reasons, including failure to:

Patient enrollment is a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials and is affected by many factors, including the size and nature of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial, the design of the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and clinicians’ and patients’ or caregivers’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or treatments that may be approved for the indications we are investigating.

We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the data safety monitoring board for such clinical trial or by the FDA or any other regulatory authority, or if the IRBs of the institutions in which such clinical trials are being conducted suspend or terminate the participation of their clinical investigators and sites subject to their review. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical trial due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, including good clinical practices (“GCPs”) or the approved clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or clinical trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in a finding of non-compliance, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions, or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

If we experience delays in the completion of, or termination of, any clinical trial of our product candidates for any reason, the commercial prospects of our product candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues from any of these product candidates will be delayed. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and the future marketing approval process, and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenues. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.

Due to our limited resources, we may be forced to focus on a limited number of development candidates which may force us to pass on opportunities that could have a greater chance of clinical success.

Due to our limited resources and capabilities, we will have to decide to focus on developing a limited number of product candidates. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial product candidates or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate.

We will need to rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical research and clinical trials and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such research or trials.

We plan to rely on third-party CROs to conduct the majority of our preclinical research studies and our clinical trials. In addition, we plan to rely on other third parties, such as clinical data management organizations, medical institutions and clinical investigators, to conduct those clinical trials. There is no assurance we can obtain the services we need at commercially reasonable prices or within the timeframes we desire. Even though we will enter into agreements governing these third parties’ activities, we will have limited influence over their actual performance and we will control only certain aspects of their activities. Further, agreements with such third parties might terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the CROs. If there is any dispute or disruption in our relationship with our contractors or if we need to enter into alternative arrangements, that will delay our product development activities.

Our reliance on third parties for research and development activities will reduce our control over these activities, but will not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. If any of our CROs’ processes, methodologies or results are determined to be invalid or inadequate, our own clinical data and results and related regulatory approvals could be adversely affected. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with GCPs for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. The FDA enforces these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites, as well as CROs. If we or our CRO fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving any marketing applications. Upon inspection, the FDA may determine that our clinical trials did not comply with GCPs. In addition, our clinical trials will require a sufficiently large number of test subjects to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a product candidate. Accordingly, if our CROs fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of patients, our clinical trials may be delayed or we may be required to repeat such clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. These third parties may not assign as great a priority to our programs or pursue them as diligently as we would if we were undertaking such programs ourselves. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or if the quality of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our product candidates.

We currently have no marketing and sales organization and have no experience in marketing products. If we are unable to establish marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, if approved in the future, we may not be able to generate product revenue.

We currently have no sales, marketing or distribution capabilities and have no experience as a company in marketing products. If we develop internal sales, marketing and distribution organization, this would require significant capital expenditures, management resources and time, and we would have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel.

If we are unable or decide not to establish internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, we expect to pursue collaborative arrangements regarding the sales, marketing and distribution of our future products. However, we may not be able to establish or maintain such collaborative arrangements, or if we are able to do so, their sales forces may not be successful in marketing our future products. Any revenue we receive would depend upon the efforts of such third parties, which may not be successful. We may have little or no control over the sales, marketing and distribution efforts of such third parties and our revenue from product sales may be lower than if we had commercialized our product candidates ourselves. We also face competition in our search for third parties to assist us with the sales, marketing and distribution efforts of our product candidates, if approved. There can be no assurance that we will be able to develop internal sales, marketing distribution capabilities or establish or maintain relationships with third-party collaborators to commercialize any product in the United States or overseas.

If our contract manufacturing organization for materials to be used in our clinical trials fails to supply us with the necessary materials, we may be unable to complete our clinical trials on a timely basis, if at all.

We have entered into an agreement with a third party to handle the manufacturing supply chain for product candidate ART27.13. If this manufacturer is unable or unwilling to provide us with sufficient quantities of our product candidate to meet its demands or fails to meet its standards of quality or other specification or to achieve drug cGMP compliance, we may not be able to locate any alternative suppliers or enter into commercially reasonable agreements with substitute suppliers in a timely manner or at all.

We may depend on third parties for clinical and commercial supplies, including, in some instances, a single supplier.

We may depend on third-party suppliers for clinical and commercial supplies, including the active ingredients which are used in our product candidate. These supplies may not always be available to us at the standards we require or on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and we may not be able to locate alternative suppliers in a timely manner, or at all. If we are unable to obtain necessary clinical or commercial supplies, its manufacturing operations and clinical trials and the clinical trials of our collaborators may be delayed or disrupted, and its business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We may rely on a single supplier for certain of its supplies. If this supplier is unable to supply to us in the quantities we require, or at all, or otherwise defaults on its supply obligations to us, we may not be able to obtain alternative supplies from other suppliers on acceptable terms, in a timely manner, or at all.

If any of our offices become damaged or inoperable, or we are required to vacate our facilities, our ability to pursue our research and development efforts may be jeopardized.

We currently do not have any manufacturing facilities. We also do not own any properties, laboratories, or manufacturing facilities. However, we have offices in La Jolla, California, Manchester, UK, and Dublin, Ireland. Our facilities could be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including earthquakes, fires, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, famines, pestilence, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, extreme weather conditions, medical epidemics, pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber warfare, international conflict, climate change, and other natural or man-made disasters or other business interruptions, for which we are predominantly self-insured. Any of these may render it difficult or impossible for us to continue company operations. If any of our facilities is inoperable for even a short period of time, the interruption in research and development may result in harm to our reputation and increased costs, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, it could be costly and time-consuming to repair or replace our facilities and the equipment we use to perform our research and development work.

Even if we are successful in licensing or developing research programs and/or product candidates, we or our licensors must maintain the intellectual property.

Our commercial success is significantly dependent on intellectual property related to any product candidates and technologies we may either acquire, license or develop internally. We are currently the licensee of multiple issued patents and pending patent applications and we intend to license additional technologies from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and research institutions. In addition, we have one U.S. patent, one U.S. patent application, and two foreign patent applications directed to a solid-state CBD composition.

Our success depends in large part on our and our licensor’s ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our proprietary technology and product candidates. In some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology or products that we license from third parties. Therefore, we cannot be certain that these patents and applications will be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. In addition, if third parties who license patents to us fail to maintain such patents, or lose rights to those patents, the rights we have licensed may be reduced or eliminated.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our and our licensor’s patent rights are highly uncertain. Our and our licensor’s pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or products or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and products. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. The laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we or our licensor were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned and licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we or our licensor were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, the first to file a patent application is entitled to the patent. We may become involved in opposition or interference proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such proceeding could reduce the scope of, or invalidate our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or product candidates and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize our product candidates without infringing third-party patent rights.

Even if any owned and/or licensed patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop or prevent us from stopping others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and product candidates. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.

The costs and other requirements associated with filing new patent applications, and the ongoing cost of prosecuting pending patent applications and maintenance of issued patents are material to us. Bearing these costs and complying with these requirements are essential to procurement and maintenance of patents integral to our product candidates.

Legal, filing costs, periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or patent applications will come due for payment periodically throughout the lifecycle of patent applications and issued patents. In order to help ensure that we comply with any required fee payment, documentary and/or procedural requirements as they might relate to any patents for which we are an assignee or co-assignee, we employ legal help and related professionals as needed to comply with those requirements. Failure to meet a required fee payment, document production or procedural requirement can result in the abandonment of a pending patent application or the lapse of an issued patent. In some instances, the defect can be cured through late compliance, but there are situations where the failure to meet the required deadline cannot be cured. Such an occurrence could compromise the intellectual property protection around a preclinical or clinical product candidate and possibly weaken or eliminate our ability to protect our eventual market share for that product candidate.

Our ability to research, develop and commercialize any product candidates is dependent on our ability to acquire, maintain or utilize third party contract research facilities that possess licenses relating to the cultivation, possession and supply of controlled substances.

In the United States, the DEA regulates the cultivation, possession and supply of cannabis for medical research and/or commercial development, including the requirement of annual registrations to manufacture or distribute cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals. We do not currently conduct manufacturing or repackaging/relabeling of any product candidates in the United States, however we intend to conduct research on cannabinoids, including naturally-occurring cannabinoids, which are currently considered Schedule 1 controlled substances. We plan to obtain the required licenses regulating the possession and supply of cannabinoids and to utilize third party contractors to conduct research who have the required registrations, however there is no assurance that we will be successful in obtaining the required licenses or that we will be successful identifying or engaging third party contractors who have the required registrations.

We plan to conduct a significant portion of our research in the United Kingdom, where licenses to cultivate, possess and supply cannabinoids for medical research are granted by the Home Office on an annual basis. We do not currently possess the required licenses, so until we do so, our research must be conducted within research institutions that possess the required licenses. If we are unable to conduct research at institutions that possess the required licenses, or if those licenses are not renewed in the future, we may not be in a position to engage in or carry on research and development programs in the United Kingdom. In order to carry out research in countries other than the United States and the United Kingdom, similar licenses to those outlined above are required to be issued by the relevant authority in each country. In addition, we will be required to obtain licenses to export from the U.S. and to import into the recipient country. We may also conduct a portion of our research in Canada, where we currently collaborating on certain research, and Ireland, where we currently have an office.

To date, we have not obtained controlled substance import, export, or supply licenses in any countries. We do not have an established track record of obtaining such required licenses and there is no assurance we will be able to obtain or maintain such licenses in the future, which could restrict our ability to conduct the research required for development and commercialization of our lead products.

Any product candidates we develop may be subject to U.S. controlled substance laws and regulations and failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or the cost of compliance with these laws and regulations, may adversely affect the results of our business operations, both during clinical development and post approval, and our financial condition.

Some of our product candidates may contain controlled substances as defined in the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (the “CSA”). Controlled substances are subject to a high degree of regulation under the CSA, which establishes, among other things, certain registration, manufacturing quotas, security, recordkeeping, reporting, import, export and other requirements that are administered and enforced by the DEA. The DEA classifies controlled substances into five schedules: Schedule I, II, III, IV or V substances. Schedule I substances by definition have a high potential for abuse, have no currently “accepted medical use” in the United States, lack accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and may not be prescribed, marketed or sold in the U.S. Pharmaceutical products approved for use in the United States that comprise or contain a controlled substance are listed as Schedule II, III, IV or V, with Schedule II substances presenting the highest potential for abuse or dependence and Schedule V substances the lowest relative risk of abuse among such substances. Schedule I and II drugs are subject to the strictest controls under the CSA, including manufacturing and procurement quotas, security requirements and criteria for importation. In addition, dispensing of Schedule II drugs by licensed and DEA-registered health care providers is further restricted. For example, they may not be refilled without a new prescription.

While cannabis is a Schedule I controlled substance, products approved for medical use in the United States that contain cannabis-derived extracts may be placed in Schedules II-V, since marketing approval by the FDA satisfies the “accepted medical use” requirement. If and when any of our product candidates receive FDA approval, the DEA will make a scheduling determination within ninety days, taking into account recommendations from the FDA controlled substances staff, in order to place the product in a schedule other than Schedule I so that it may be prescribed to patients in the U.S. Furthermore, if the FDA, DEA, or any foreign regulatory authority subsequently determines that any approved and commercialized cannabinoid-based products may have potential for abuse, it may require us to generate more clinical or other data to establish whether or to what extent the substance has an abuse potential, which could result in a re-scheduling of the product and increase the costs associated with marketing that product. Prior to June 2018, GW Pharmaceuticals was developing a cannabis-extracted CBD product designated as schedule I and now, having FDA approval in June 2018 of EpidiolexÒ in the US, the DEA has not only removed it from the list of Schedule I chemicals, the DEA has removed it from the list of controlled substances altogether.

DEA registration and inspection of facilities. Facilities conducting research, manufacturing, distributing, importing or exporting, or dispensing controlled substances must be registered (licensed) to perform these activities and have the security, control, recordkeeping, reporting and inventory mechanisms required by the DEA to prevent drug loss and diversion. All these facilities must renew their registrations annually, except dispensing facilities, which must renew every three years. The DEA conducts periodic inspections of certain registered establishments that handle controlled substances. Obtaining the necessary registrations may result in delay of the importation, manufacturing or distribution of any cannabinoid derived products we may develop. Furthermore, failure to maintain compliance with the CSA, particularly non-compliance resulting in loss or diversion, can result in regulatory action that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The DEA may seek civil penalties, refuse to renew necessary registrations, or initiate proceedings to restrict, suspend or revoke those registrations. In certain circumstances, violations could lead to criminal proceedings.

State-controlled substances laws. Individual states have also established controlled substance laws and regulations. Though state-controlled substances laws often mirror federal law, because the states are separate jurisdictions, they may separately schedule our product candidates as well. While some states automatically schedule a drug based on federal action, other states schedule drugs through rulemaking or a legislative action. State scheduling may delay commercial sale of any product for which we obtain federal regulatory approval and adverse scheduling could have a material adverse effect on the commercial attractiveness of such product. We or our partners must also obtain separate state registrations, permits or licenses in order to be able to obtain, handle, and distribute controlled substances for clinical trials or commercial sale, and failure to meet applicable regulatory requirements could lead to enforcement and sanctions by the states in addition to those from the DEA or otherwise arising under federal law.

Clinical trials. It is possible some compounds we develop may contain cannabinoids, which may be designated as Schedule I substances, therefore to conduct clinical trials in the United States prior to approval, each of our research sites must submit a research protocol to the DEA and obtain and maintain a DEA researcher registration that will allow those sites to handle and dispense our lead products, as applicable, and to obtain the product from our importer. If the DEA delays or denies the grant of a research registration to one or more research sites, the clinical trial could be significantly delayed, and we could lose clinical trial sites. The importer for the clinical trials must also obtain a Schedule I importer registration and an import permit for each import. We do not currently conduct any clinical trials, manufacturing or repackaging/relabeling in the U.S.

Importation. If one of our product candidates is approved and classified as a Schedule II or III substance, an importer can import for commercial purposes if it obtains an importer registration and files an application for an import permit for each import. The DEA provides annual assessments/estimates to the International Narcotics Control Board which guides the DEA in the amounts of controlled substances that the DEA authorizes to be imported. The failure to identify an importer or obtain the necessary import authority, including specific quantities, could affect product availability and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, an application for a Schedule II importer registration must be published in the Federal Register, and there is a waiting period for third party comments to be submitted. It is always possible a competitor could take this opportunity to make adverse comments that delay the grant of an importer registration.

If one of our product candidates is approved and classified as a Schedule II controlled substance, federal law may prohibit the import of the substance for commercial purposes. If a product is listed as a Schedule II substance, we will not be allowed to import that drug for commercial purposes unless the DEA determines that domestic supplies are inadequate or there is inadequate domestic competition among domestic manufacturers for the substance as defined by the DEA. It is always possible the DEA could find that the active substance in a product, even if it is a plant derived substance, could be manufactured in the US. Moreover, Schedule I controlled substances, have never been registered with the DEA for importation commercial purposes, only for scientific and research needs. Therefore, if any of our future products could not be imported, that product would have to be wholly manufactured in the United States, and we would need to secure a manufacturer that would be required to obtain and maintain a separate DEA registration for that activity.

Manufacture in the United States. If, because of a Schedule II classification or voluntarily, we were to conduct manufacturing or repackaging/relabeling in the United States, our contract manufacturers would be subject to the DEA’s annual manufacturing and procurement quota requirements. Additionally, regardless of the scheduling of any future product candidates, if the active ingredient in the final dosage form is a cannabinoid and is currently a Schedule I controlled substance it would be subject to such quotas as these substances could remain listed on Schedule I. The annual quota allocated to us or our contract manufacturers for the active ingredients in our products may not be sufficient to complete clinical trials or meet commercial demand. Consequently, any delay or refusal by the DEA in establishing our, or our contract manufacturers’, procurement and/or production quota for controlled substances could delay or stop our clinical trials or product launches, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and operations.

Distribution in the United States. If any of our product candidates is scheduled as Schedule II or III, we would also need to identify wholesale distributors with the appropriate DEA and state registrations and authority to distribute the product to pharmacies and other health care providers. We would need to identify distributors to distribute the product to pharmacies; these distributors would need to obtain Schedule II or III distribution registrations. The failure to obtain, or delay in obtaining, or the loss any of those registrations could result in increased costs to us. If any of our product candidates is a Schedule II drug, pharmacies would have to maintain enhanced security with alarms and monitoring systems, and they must adhere to recordkeeping and inventory requirements. This may discourage some pharmacies from carrying either or both of these products. Furthermore, state and federal enforcement actions, regulatory requirements, and legislation intended to reduce prescription drug abuse, such as the requirement that physicians consult a state prescription drug monitoring program may make physicians less willing to prescribe, and pharmacies to dispense, Schedule II products.

Our product development projects, if approved, may be unable to achieve the expected market acceptance and, consequently, limit our ability to generate revenue.

Even when and if product development is successful and regulatory approval has been obtained, our ability to generate significant revenue depends on the acceptance of our product candidates by physicians and patients. We cannot assure you that any of our product candidates will achieve the expected market acceptance and revenue, if and when we obtain the regulatory approvals. The market acceptance of any of our potential products depends on a number of factors, including the indication statement and warnings approved by regulatory authorities in the drug label, continued demonstration of efficacy and safety in commercial use, physicians’ willingness to prescribe the product, reimbursement from third-party payers such as government health care systems and insurance companies, the price of the product, the nature of any post-approval risk management plans mandated by regulatory authorities, competition, and marketing and distribution support. Any factors preventing or limiting the market acceptance of our products could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Results of preclinical studies and earlier clinical trials are not necessarily predictive indicators of future results.

Any positive results from future preclinical testing of our product candidates and potential clinical trials may not necessarily be predictive of the results from Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials. In addition, our interpretation of results derived from clinical data or our conclusions based on our preclinical data may prove inaccurate. Frequently, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have suffered significant setbacks in clinical trials after achieving positive results in preclinical testing and early clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. These setbacks may be caused by the fact that preclinical and clinical data can be susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Furthermore, certain product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials, but nonetheless failed to obtain FDA approval or a marketing authorization granted by the European Commission. If we fail to produce positive results in our clinical trials for our product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for them and as a result our business and financial prospects, would be materially adversely affected.

Clinical trials of cannabinoid-based product candidates are novel with very limited or non-existing history; we face a significant risk that the trials will not result in commercially viable products and treatments.

At present, there is only a very limited documented clinical trial history related to cannabinoids from which we can derive any scientific conclusions, or prove that our present assumptions for the current and planned research are scientifically compelling. While we are encouraged by the limited results of clinical trials by others, there can be no assurance that any clinical trial will result in commercially viable products or treatments.

Clinical trials are expensive, time consuming and difficult to design and implement. We, as well as the regulatory authorities may suspend, delay or terminate our clinical trials at any time, may require us, for various reasons, to conduct additional clinical trials, or may require a particular clinical trial to continue for a longer duration than originally planned, including, among others:

Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Changes in consumer preferences and acceptance of cannabinoid-derived products and any negative trends will adversely affect our business.

We are substantially dependent on initial and continued market acceptance and proliferation of cannabinoid-derived therapeutic treatments. We believe that as cannabinoid-derived products become more widely accepted by the medical and scientific communities and the public at large, the stigma associated with cannabinoid-derived products and treatments will moderate and, as a result, consumer demand will likely continue to grow. However, we cannot predict the future growth rate and size of the market, assuming that the regulatory framework is favorable of which there can be no assurance. Any negative outlook on cannabinoid-derived products and treatments could adversely affect our business prospects.

In addition, while some may believe that large, well-funded pharmaceutical and other related businesses and industries may have material economic reasons to be in strong opposition to cannabinoid-based products, we do not believe that it is accurate. Despite the fact that several large pharmaceutical companies are already marketing FDA approved cannabinoid-based or ECS targeting therapies, it remains relatively uncommon among the global pharmaceutical giants. The pharmaceutical industry is also well-funded with a strong and experienced lobby presence at both the federal and state levels as well as internationally, that surpasses financial resources of the current group of research and development companies working on product candidates that modulate the endocannabinoid system. Any effort the pharmaceutical lobby could or might undertake to halt or delay the development of cannabinoid-based products could have a detrimental impact on our business.

These pressures could also limit or restrict the introduction and marketing of any such cannabinoid-derived product. Adverse publicity regarding cannabis misuse or adverse side effects from cannabis or other cannabinoid-derived products may adversely affect the commercial success or marketability. The nature of our business attracts and may be expected to continue to attract a high level of public and media interest and, in the event of any related adverse publicity, we may not succeed in monetizing our products and treatments.

Our product candidates may contain controlled substances, the use of which may generate public controversy.

Since our product candidates may contain controlled substances, their regulatory approval may generate public controversy. Political and social pressures and adverse publicity could lead to delays in approval of, and increased expenses for, our product candidates. These pressures could also limit or restrict the introduction and marketing of our product candidates. Adverse publicity from cannabis misuse or adverse side effects from cannabis or other cannabinoid-derived products may adversely affect the commercial success or market penetration achievable by our product candidates. The nature of our business will likely attract a high-level of public and media interest, and in the event of any resultant adverse publicity, our reputation may be harmed.

To date, the FDA has only approved one plant-derived cannabinoid product as safe and effective for indications related to epilepsy in children. The FDA is aware that there is considerable interest in the use of cannabinoids to attempt to treat a number of medical conditions. Before conducting testing in humans in the U.S. of a drug that has not been approved by the FDA, we will need to submit an IND application to the FDA. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending new drug applications (“NDAs”), warning letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties and criminal prosecution.

Laws and regulations affecting therapeutic uses of cannabinoids are constantly evolving.

The constant evolution of laws and regulations affecting the research and development of cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products and treatments could detrimentally affect our business. Laws and regulations related to the therapeutic uses of cannabinoids are subject to changing interpretations. These changes may require us to incur substantial costs associated with legal and compliance fees and ultimately require us to alter our business plan. Furthermore, violations or alleged violation of these laws could disrupt our business and result in a material adverse effect on our operations. In addition, we cannot predict the nature of any future laws, regulations, interpretations or applications of laws and regulations and it is possible that new laws and regulations may be enacted in the future that will be directly applicable to our business.

Cannabinoid-based research activities in the pharmaceutical industry may make it difficult to obtain insurance coverage.

In the event that we decide to commence research based on plant-derived cannabinoids in the U.S., obtaining and maintaining necessary insurance coverage, for such things as workers compensation, general liability, product liability and directors and officers insurance, may be more difficult and expensive for us to find because of our research directions utilizing synthetic and plant-derived cannabinoids. There can be no assurance that we will be able to find such insurance, if needed, or that the cost of coverage will be affordable or cost-effective. If, either because of unavailability or cost prohibitive reasons, we are compelled to operate without insurance coverage, we may be prevented from entering certain business sectors, experience inhibited growth potential and/or expose us to additional risks and financial liabilities.

We face a potentially highly competitive market.

Demand for medical cannabinoid-derived products is dependent on a number of social, political and economic factors that are beyond our control. While we believe that demand for such products will continue to grow, there is no assurance that such increase in demand will happen, that we will benefit from any demand increase or that our business, in fact, will ever become profitable.

The emerging markets for cannabinoid-derived products and medical research and development are and will likely remain competitive. The development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products in general is highly competitive. We compete with a variety of multinational pharmaceutical companies and specialized biotechnology companies, as well as products and processes being developed by universities and other research institutions. Many of our competitors have developed, are developing, or will develop products and processes competitive with our product candidates. Competitive therapeutic treatments include those that have already been approved and accepted by the medical community and any new treatments that may enter the market. For some of our product development directions, other treatment options are currently available, under development, and may become commercially available in the future. If any of our product candidates is approved for the diseases and conditions we are currently pursuing, they may compete with a range of therapeutic treatments that are either in development or currently marketed.

Changes in legislation or regulation in the health care systems in the United States and foreign jurisdictions may affect us.

Our ability to successfully commercialize our products may depend on how the U.S. and other governments and/or health administrations provide coverage and/or reimbursements for our products. The ongoing efforts of governments, insurance companies, and other participants in the health care services industry to reduce health care costs may adversely affect our ability to achieve profitability.

In certain foreign markets, including countries in the European Union, pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. Price negotiations with governmental authorities may range from 6 to 12 months or longer after the receipt of regulatory marketing approval for a product. Our business could be detrimentally impacted if reimbursements of our products are unavailable or limited if pricing is set at unacceptable levels.

We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.

Our ability to compete in our highly competitive industry depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, President, Treasurer and Secretary, Gregory D. Gorgas. The loss of the services of Mr. Gorgas, and our inability to find a suitable replacement could result in delays in research and development and product development and harm our business. Additionally, although we have entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Gorgas, this employment agreement provides for at-will employment, which means that Mr. Gorgas could leave our employment at any time, with or without notice. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the life of Mr. Gorgas.

Competition for skilled personnel in our market is intense and may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all. To induce valuable service providers to remain at our Company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have issued stock options and restricted stock awards that vest over time. The value to service providers of stock options and restricted stock awards that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with us on short notice. Our success depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior, mid-level and senior managers as well as junior, mid-level and senior scientific and medical personnel. If we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, it would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We will need to grow the size and capabilities of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.

To effect our business plan, we will need to rapidly add other management, accounting, regulatory, and scientific staff. We currently have only three employees. We will need to attract, retain and motivate a significant number of new additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, and other personnel, as well as highly skilled scientific and medical personnel, and to expand our capabilities to successfully pursue our research, development, manufacturing and commercialization efforts and secure collaborations to market and distribute our products. This growth may strain our existing managerial, operational, financial and other resources. We also intend to add personnel in our research and development and regulatory departments as we expand our clinical trial and research capabilities. Moreover, we will need to hire additional accounting and other personnel and augment our infrastructure as we continue to grow the Company. Any inability to attract and retain qualified employees to enable our planned growth and establish additional capabilities or our failure to manage our growth effectively could delay or curtail our product development and commercialization efforts and harm our business.

We are currently reliant on consultants to oversee critical activities and perform services on behalf of the Company.

Due to our limited financial resources, we have engaged consultants to work on a part-time basis to oversee critical activities and perform services on behalf of the Company. Even if we are successful in raising additional capital and require those activities and services be performed by full-time employees, there is no guarantee that we will be able to hire our current consultants or consultants with similar background and experience to oversee those functions or perform services on behalf of the Company. We are also at risk that the consultants we use may not be able to perform services on a timely basis for us as opposed to other companies who may offer greater compensation or more opportunity than we do, and that those consultants may eventually decide to accept full-time employment with other companies, some of which could be a direct competitor to us.

We have incurred losses since inception and cannot assure that we will ever achieve or sustain profitability.

We have incurred losses since inception. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating and net losses for the foreseeable future. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity securities. To date our primary activities have been limited to, and our limited resources have been dedicated to, raising capital, non-clinical research on our programs, recruiting service providers, negotiating with business partners and licensors of intellectual property, filing patent applications, and complying with public reporting requirements.

We have never been profitable and do not expect to be profitable in the foreseeable future. We expect our expenses to increase significantly as we pursue our objectives. The extent of our future operating losses and the timing of profitability are highly uncertain, and we expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses over the next several years. Our prior and continuing losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital. We cannot assure that we will ever be able to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, license additional programs, establish or maintain development efforts, obtain regulatory approvals or continue operations.

Our employees or consultants may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by our employees or consultants could include intentional failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standards we have established, to comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of individually identifiable information, including, without limitation, information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a code of business conduct and ethics, but it is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent improper activities may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions, including civil, criminal or administrative.

We may not successfully manage our growth.

Our success will depend upon the effective management of our growth, which will place a significant strain on our management and on administrative, operational and financial resources. To manage this growth, we will be required to expand our facilities, augment our operational, financial and management systems and hire and train additional qualified personnel. Our inability to manage this growth could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to our product candidates, and our ability to successfully commercialize any product candidates we may develop, and our science may be adversely affected.

As with our competitors, our ability to maintain and solidify a proprietary position for our product candidates will depend upon our success in obtaining effective patent claims that cover such product candidates, their manufacturing processes and their intended methods of use, and enforcing those claims once granted. Furthermore, in some cases, we may not be able to obtain issued claims covering our product candidates which are sufficient to prevent third parties, such as our competitors, from either utilizing our technology or designing around any patent claims to avoid infringing them. Any failure to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our product candidates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Changes in either the patent laws or their interpretation in the U.S. and other countries may diminish our ability to protect our inventions, obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights and, more generally, could affect the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our issued patents. Additionally, we cannot predict whether the patent applications we or our licensors are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient protection from competitors or other third parties.

The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming, and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce, or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output in time to file for or obtain patent protection. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to confidential or patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, suppliers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. If any licensors are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised or even lost entirely. If there are material defects in the form, preparation or prosecution of our patents or patent applications, such patents or applications may be subject to challenges based on invalidity and/or unenforceability. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business. 

Patents also have a limited lifespan. In the United States, subject to certain extensions that may be obtained in some cases, the natural expiration of a utility patent is generally 20 years from its earliest effective filing date, and the natural expiration of a design patent is generally 14 years after its issue date, unless the filing date occurred on or after May 13, 2015, in which case the natural expiration of a design patent is generally 15 years after its issue date. Various extensions may be available; however, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Without patent protection for our products and services, we may be open to competition. Further, if we encounter delays in our development efforts, the period of time during which we could market our products and services under patent protection would be reduced.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural measures, document submissions, fee payments and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on patents and applications will be due to be paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) and various government patent agencies outside of the U.S. over the lifetime of our and our licensors’ patents and applications. The USPTO and various non-U.S. government agencies require compliance with several procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process and after patent issuance. In some cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. There are situations, however, in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in a partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, potential competitors might be able to enter the market in that jurisdiction with similar or identical products or technology, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.

We may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our patents or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship of inventions covered by our or our licensors’ patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or rights or licenses to use, intellectual property that is important to our products. Even if we and our licensors are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, can be expensive or difficult to enforce, and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

Should any of these events occur, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Intellectual property litigation could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.

There is a great deal of litigation concerning intellectual property in our industry, and we or our licensors could become involved in litigation. Even if resolved in our or our licensors’ favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us or our licensors to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our securities. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce our resources available for development activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct or defend against such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and ability to compete in the marketplace. 

We may be subject to claims that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.

Some of our employees and consultants were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR SECURITIES

You may be unable to exercise the Warrants and they may have no value under certain circumstances.

We currently do not have authorized shares available to permit exercise of all of the warrants. Therefore, all of the warrants will not be exercisable until we obtain stockholder approval to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock in an amount sufficient to permit exercise in full of the warrants. If we are unable to obtain such stockholder approval, the warrants may have no value and will expire. In no event may the warrants be net cash settled.

We have used almost all of our unreserved, authorized shares.  

We have used almost all of our unreserved authorized shares and will need stockholder approval to increase the number of authorized shares. Our articles of incorporation currently requires stockholder approval of not less than a majority of all outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote in order to increase the number of authorized shares. There are no assurances that stockholder approval will be obtained. In the event that stockholder approval is not obtained, we will be unable to raise additional capital through the issuance of shares of common stock to fund our future operations.

If we sell securities in future financings, subject to our stockholders approving an increase to the number of authorized shares, stockholders may experience immediate dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

We may from time to time issue additional shares of common stock at a discount from the current market price of our common stock. As a result, our stockholders would experience immediate dilution upon the purchase of any of our securities sold at such discount. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preferred stock or common stock. If we issue common stock or securities convertible into common stock, our common stockholders could experience additional dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

The price of our securities may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Further, we do not know whether an active, liquid and orderly trading market will develop for our securities or what the market price of our securities will be and as a result it may be difficult for you to sell your shares of our securities.

Although our securities are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, an active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained. You may not be able to sell your shares quickly or at the market price if trading in shares of our securities is not active. Further, an inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of our securities and may impair our ability to enter into strategic partnerships or acquire companies or products by using shares of our securities as consideration, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, the trading price of our securities is likely to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control, including limited trading volume.

Shares of our common stock that have not been registered under federal securities laws are subject to resale restrictions imposed by Rule 144, including those set forth in Rule 144(i) which apply to a former “shell company.”

Our common stock was previously listed for trading on the OTC Market’s OTCQB service under the symbol “ARTL.” Our stock has limited trading volume. Many of our securities will be subject to restrictions on transfer under the Securities Act and may not be transferred in the absence of registration or the availability of a resale exemption. In particular, in the absence of registration, such securities cannot be resold to the public until certain requirements under Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act have been satisfied, including certain holding period requirements and other requirements applicable to companies that have previously been a shell company. An investor may be unable to sell such securities at the time or at the price or upon such other terms and conditions as the investor desires, and the terms of such sale may be less favorable than might be obtainable because of a limited market, which may never develop.

Until December 2017, we were deemed a “shell company” under applicable SEC rules and regulations because we had no or nominal operations and either no or nominal assets, assets consisting solely of cash and cash equivalents, or assets consisting of any amount of cash and cash equivalents and nominal other assets. Pursuant to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act, sales of the securities of a former shell company, such as us, under that rule are not permitted (i) until at least 12 months have elapsed from the date on which our Current Report on Form 8–K reflecting our status as a non-shell company, was filed with the SEC; and (ii) unless at the time of a proposed sale, we are subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and have filed all reports and other materials required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as applicable, during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that we were required to file such reports and materials), other than Form 8–K reports. We are currently subject to the reporting rules under the Exchange Act and expect to remain subject to the reporting requirements under the Exchange Act. However, even then, many of our stockholders may be forced to hold their shares of our common stock for at least that 12-month period before they are eligible to sell those shares, and even after that 12-month period, sales may not be made under Rule 144 unless we are in compliance with other requirements of Rule 144. Further, it will be more difficult for us to raise funding to support our operations through the sale of debt or equity securities unless we agree to register such securities under the Securities Act, which could cause us to expend significant time and cash resources. Additionally, our previous status as a shell company could also limit our use of our securities to pay for any acquisitions we may seek to pursue in the future (although none are currently planned). The lack of liquidity of our securities as a result of the inability to sell under Rule 144 for a longer period of time than a non-former shell company could cause the market price of our securities to decline or make it difficult to establish a trading market in our shares.

Certain of the possible adjustments to the warrants may result in a deemed distribution from us to a beneficial owner of a warrant that will be taxable, even though the beneficial owner does not receive a corresponding distribution of cash.

The exercise terms of the warrants may be adjusted in certain circumstances. An adjustment to the number of shares of common stock that will be issued on the exercise of the warrants or an adjustment to the exercise price of the warrants (or, in certain circumstances, a failure to make adjustments) may be treated as a taxable deemed distribution to a holder of the warrants, even if such holder does not receive any cash or other property in connection with the adjustment. Holders of the warrants should consult their tax advisors regarding the proper treatment of any adjustments to the warrants.

Sales of our currently issued and outstanding stock may become freely tradable pursuant to Rule 144 and sales of such shares may have a depressive effect on the share price of our common stock.

Many of the outstanding shares of common stock are “restricted securities” within the meaning of Rule 144. As restricted shares, these shares may be resold only pursuant to an effective registration statement or under the requirements of Rule 144 or other applicable exemptions from registration under the Securities Act and as required under applicable state securities laws. Rule 144 provides in essence that a non-affiliate who has held restricted securities for a period of at least six months may sell their shares of common stock. Under Rule 144, affiliates who have held restricted securities for a period of at least six months may, under certain conditions, sell every three months, in brokerage transactions, a number of shares that does not exceed the greater of 1% of a company’s outstanding shares of common stock or the average weekly trading volume during the four calendar weeks prior to the sale. A sale under Rule 144 or under any other exemption from the Securities Act, if available, or pursuant to subsequent registrations of our shares of common stock, may have a depressive effect upon the price of our shares of common stock in any active market that may develop.

We do not plan to declare or pay any dividends to our stockholders in the near future.

We have not declared any dividends in the past, and we do not intend to distribute dividends in the near future. The declaration, payment and amount of any future dividends will be made at the discretion of our Board and will depend upon, among other things, the results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, operating and capital requirements, and other factors as our Board considers relevant. There is no assurance that future dividends will be paid, and if dividends are paid, there is no assurance with respect to the amount of any such dividend.

We incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a public company, we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (“the Exchange Act”), which will require, among other things, that we file with the SEC, annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently adopted by the SEC and the Nasdaq to implement provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, impose significant requirements on public companies, including requiring establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Further, in July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, was enacted. There are significant corporate governance and executive compensation related provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act that require the SEC to adopt additional rules and regulations in these areas such as “say on pay” and proxy access. Stockholder activism, the current political environment and the current high level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate.

If the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Capital Market divert the attention of our management and personnel from other business concerns, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The increased costs will decrease our net income or increase our net loss, and may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business or increase the prices of our products or services. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board, our board committees or as executive officers.

Future changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect reported results of operations.

A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct business.

Our disclosure controls and procedures may not be effective to ensure that we make all required disclosures.

As a public reporting company, we are subject to the periodic reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to reasonably assure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met.

These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements or insufficient disclosures due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

Anti-takeover provisions in our amended and restated articles of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions in Nevada law, might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our securities.

Our amended and restated articles of incorporation, bylaws and Nevada law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult or discouraging an acquisition deemed undesirable by our Board. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:

These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.

As a Nevada corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Nevada corporate law, including Section 78.411, et seq. of the Nevada Revised Statutes, which prohibits a publicly-held Nevada corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, generally a person which together with its affiliates owns, or within the last two years has owned, 10% of our voting stock, for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner.

The existence of the foregoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. They could also deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that our stockholders could receive a premium for their common stock in an acquisition.

Our business is subject to changing regulations related to corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of noncompliance.

Because our common stock and our public warrants are publicly traded, we are subject to certain rules and regulations of federal, state and financial market exchange entities charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded. These entities, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC and Nasdaq, have issued requirements and regulations and continue to develop additional regulations and requirements in response to corporate scandals and laws enacted by Congress, most notably the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Our efforts to comply with these regulations have resulted in, and are likely to continue resulting in, increased general and administrative expenses and diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. Because new and modified laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices.

We are a smaller reporting company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies will make our securities less attractive to investors.

For as long as we continue to be a smaller reporting company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not smaller reporting companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and our periodic reports and proxy statements. We cannot predict if investors will find our securities less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities, and our stock price may be more volatile.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our securities will depend on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. There can be no assurance that analysts will cover us or provide favorable coverage. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or change their opinion of our stock, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

As a “smaller reporting company”, we are not required to provide the information required by this Item.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our principal executive office is currently located at 888 Prospect Street, Suite 210, La Jolla, CA, 92037, U.S. Additionally, we have an office located at 29 Fitzwilliam Street Upper, Dublin 2 Ireland which serves as administrative space for managing our European subsidiaries: Trinity Reliant Ventures Limited (Ireland) and Artelo Biosciences Limited (UK). We do not currently own any properties, laboratories, or manufacturing facilities. The leases for our office space are month-to-month.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we may be involved in various claims and legal proceedings relating to claims arising out of our operations. We are not currently a party to any legal proceedings that, in the opinion of our management, are likely to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not Applicable.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Our common stock and warrants began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on June 21, 2019 under the trading symbols “ARTL” and “ARTLW,” respectively.

Our shares are issued in registered form. American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, 6201 15th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11219, Telephone: 800-937-5449 is the registrar and transfer agent for our common shares.

On October 15, 2020, the shareholders’ list showed 180 registered shareholders with 15,111,587 shares of common stock outstanding.

Description of Securities

The Company’s authorized capital stock consists of 25,000,000 shares of capital stock, par value $0.001 per share, of which 18,750,000 shares are common stock, par value $0.001 per share and 6,250,000 of preferred stock, par value $0.001 per share. As of October 15, 2020, the Company has 15,111,587 shares of common stock outstanding held by approximately one hundred eighty 180 stockholders of record, and no shares of preferred stock outstanding.

Common Stock

The holders of our common stock (i) have equal ratable rights to dividends from funds legally available, therefore, when, as and if declared by our Board; (ii) are entitled to share in all of our assets available for distribution to holders of common stock upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our affairs; (iii) do not have preemptive, subscription or conversion rights and there are no redemption or sinking fund provisions or rights; and (iv) are entitled to one non-cumulative vote per share on all matters on which stockholders may vote.  Reference is made to the Company’s Articles of Incorporation, By-laws and the applicable statutes of the State of Nevada for a more complete description of the rights and liabilities of holders of the Company’s securities.

Preferred Stock

The Company has authorized 6,250,000 shares of preferred stock. There is no preferred stock outstanding. Our Board may designate the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the preferred stock, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, redemption rights, liquidation preference, sinking fund terms and the number of shares constituting any series or the designation of any series. The issuance of preferred stock could have the effect of restricting dividends on the common stock, diluting the voting power of the common stock, impairing the liquidation rights of the common stock or delaying, deterring or preventing a change in control. Such issuance could have the effect of decreasing the market price of the common stock. We currently have no plans to issue any shares of preferred stock.

Non-cumulative Voting

Holders of shares of our common stock do not have cumulative voting rights; meaning that the holders of 50.1% of the outstanding shares, voting for the election of directors, can elect all of the directors to be elected, and, in such event, the holders of the remaining shares will not be able to elect any of our directors.

Registration Statement on Form S-8 

As of August 31, 2020, 281,834 shares of our common stock were issuable upon the exercise of options or restricted stock awards.

Dividend Policy

We have not paid any cash dividends to stockholders.  The declaration of any future cash dividend will be at the discretion of our Board and will depend upon our earnings, if any, our capital requirements and financial position, our general economic conditions, and other pertinent conditions.  It is our present intention not to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future, but rather to reinvest earnings, if any, in our business operations.

Recent Sales of unregistered securities

We did not sell any equity securities which were not registered under the Securities Act during the year ended August 31, 2020 that were not otherwise disclosed on our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or our current reports on Form 8-K filed during the year ended August 31, 2020.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

We did not purchase any of our shares of common stock or other securities during our fourth quarter of our fiscal year ended August 31, 2020.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

As a “smaller reporting company”, we are not required to provide the information required by this Item.

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Results of Operations

The following summary of our results of operations, for the year ended August 31, 2020 and 2019, should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements, as included in this Form 10-K.

Our Company does not have any revenue. We classify our operating expenses into research and development, professional fees, and selling, general and administrative expenses. Research and development expense consists of expenses incurred while performing research and development activities to discover and develop our product candidates. This includes conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, development efforts and activities related to regulatory filings for product candidates. We recognize research and development expenses as they are incurred. 

We expect we will require additional capital to meet our long-term operating requirements. We expect to raise additional capital through, among other things, the sale of equity or debt securities, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to achieve same.

The following table provides selected financial data about the Company as of August 31, 2020 and 2019.

Balance Sheet Data

We have not generated any revenues since inception through August 31, 2020. The decrease in cash was primarily due to an increase in R&D expense and other operating expenses.

For the Year ended August 31, 2020 Compared to the Year ended August 31, 2019

Our operating expenses, for the year ended August 31, 2020 were $4,685,775 compared to $3,209,531 for the same period in 2019. The increase in general and administrative fees was primarily due to an increase in salaries and wages related to increased operations, consulting fees, and investor relations costs.  The increase in research and development was related to additional funds being utilized to fund the Company’s three primary research and development programs.  

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Liquidity is the ability of a company to generate funds to support its current and future operations, satisfy its obligations and otherwise operate on an ongoing basis.

We incurred a net loss of $4,654,862 and $2,172,176 for the years ended August 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of August 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $2.1 million. We anticipate that operating losses and net cash used in operating activities will increase over the next few years as we advance our programs under development.

As of August 31, 2020, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $9,465,618 and working capital of $1,835,022. As of August 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $2.1 million. During the year ended August 31, 2020, 1,518,354 shares were sold in connection with the Company’s at-the-market equity program for proceeds net of offering costs of $1.9 million. In addition, in October 2020 we raised an additional $6.6 million in net proceeds through a public offering.  As such, we believe our cash and cash equivalents, including the proceeds received in October 2020, will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months following filing date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Working Capital

Cash Flows

Our total current assets as of August 31, 2020 were $2,337,199 as compared to total current assets of $4,442,588 as of August 31, 2019. The decrease in current assets is primarily due to the increase in operating expenses during the year ended August 31, 2020.

Our total current liabilities as of August 31, 2020 were $502,177 as compared to total current liabilities of $1,021,513 as of August 31, 2019. The decrease in current liabilities was primarily due to stock payable of $639,417 as of August 31, 2019 which was settled through the issuance of shares as of August 31, 2020.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities

During the year ended August 31, 2020, cash used in operating activities was $4,347,382 compared to cash used in operating activities of $2,792,676 during the year ended August 31, 2019. The cash used in operating activities was primarily attributed to net loss of $4,654,862 offset by stock-based compensation of $377,766 and an increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $127,979 for the year ended August 31, 2020.  The cash used in operating activities for the year ended August 31, 2019 was primarily attributed to net loss of $2,712,176 and change in fair value gain of derivative of $1,006,099, offset by stock-based compensation of $425,110, increase in stock payable of $100,000, decrease in prepaid expenses of $27,048, and decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $180,409.

Cash Flow from Investing Activities

The Company used $0 and $688 to purchase equipment and $0 and $1,500,000 as partial payment for a license for the year ended August 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Cash Flow from Financing Activities

During the year ended August 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company received $1,977,691 and $8,376,379 from issuance of common stock and $7,863 and $18,276 from advance from related parties and repaid $4,710 and $17,228 to related parties, respectively. During the year ended August 31, 2020, the Company refunded fractional stock of $108. Of the $1,977,691 the Company received in the year ended August 31, 2020, $1,922,691 were sold in connection with the Company's at-the-market equity program.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have no off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, changes in financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources that is material to stockholders.

Critical Accounting Policies

The discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Preparing financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. These estimates and assumptions are affected by management’s application of accounting policies. We believe that understanding the basis and nature of the estimates and assumptions involved with the following aspects of our financial statements is critical to an understanding of our financial statements.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. The estimates and judgments will also affect the reported amounts for certain revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these good faith estimates and judgments.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The Company has considered all recent accounting pronouncements issued and determined that the adoption of these pronouncements would not have a material effect on the financial position, results of operations or cash flows of the Company.

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

As a “smaller reporting company”, we are not required to provide the information required by this Item.

ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

INDEX TO AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of

Artelo Biosciences, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) as of August 31, 2020 and 2019, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the years then ended, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of August 31, 2020 and 2019, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

/s/ MaloneBailey, LLP

www.malonebailey.com

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2015.

Houston, Texas

November 4, 2020

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC.

Consolidated Notes to the Financial Statements

For the years ended August 31, 2020 and 2019

NOTE 1 - ORGANIZATION AND DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

ARTELO BIOSCIENCES, INC. (“we”, “us”, “our”, the “Company”) is a Nevada corporation incorporated on May 2, 2011 and based in San Diego County, California. The accounting and reporting policies of the Company conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and the Company’s fiscal year end is August 31.

The Company registered fully owned subsidiaries in Ireland, Trinity Reliant Ventures Limited, on November 11, 2016 and in the UK, Trinity Research & Development Limited, on June 2, 2017. On January 8, 2020 Trinity Research and Development Limited changed its name to Artelo Biosciences Limited. The Company incorporated a fully owned subsidiary in Canada, Artelo Biosciences Corporation, on March 18, 2020. Operations in the subsidiaries have been consolidated in the financial statements.

We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing treatments intended to modulate the endocannabinoid system.

Liquidity

The Company has incurred losses for the past several years and a net loss of $4.7 million during the year ended August 31, 2020. Subsequent to August 31, 2020, we completed a public offering for net proceeds of approximately $6.6 million, which substantially increased our cash and cash equivalents and improved our working capital position (Note 9). Consequently, our existing cash resources and cash received from the public offering are expected to provide sufficient funds to carry out our planned operations for 12 months from the date that our consolidated financial statements are issued.

Our continuation as a going concern for a period beyond those 12 months will be dependent upon our ability to obtain adequate additional financing, as our operations are capital intensive, and future capital expenditures and additional working capital are expected. The Company’s independent registered public accounting firm expressed in its report on the Company’s financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2019 that there was substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Based on management’s plans and the significant capital raised on October 14, 2020, that substantial doubt has been alleviated.

Reverse stock split

The Company filed a Certificate of Change with the Secretary of State of Nevada, pursuant to which, effective on June 20, 2019, the Company effected a one-for-eight reverse split of its authorized and issued and outstanding common stock (the “Reverse Stock Split”). The number of authorized shares of common stock was reduced from 150,000,000 to 18,750,000. The Company’s authorized Preferred Stock was reduced from 50,000,000 to 6,250,000. All share and per share information in these financial statements retroactively reflect this reverse stock split.

Covid 19

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still evolving at this time and much of its impact remains unknown, the Company is not able to predict the impact it may have on the development of its product candidates and business. The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic could also negatively impact the Company’s access to its existing supply chain by delaying the delivery of key raw materials used in its product candidates and therefore delay the delivery of such products for use in its clinical trials. Any of these results could have a material adverse impact to our business.

NOTE 2 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation

The financial statements and related disclosures have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The Financial Statements have been prepared using the accrual basis of accounting in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) of the United States.

Basis of Consolidation

The financial statements have been prepared on a consolidated basis, with the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Trinity Reliant Ventures Limited, Artelo Biosciences Limited and Artelo Biosciences Corporation.  All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated.

Property, plant and equipment

Property and equipment are stated at cost. Depreciation is computed on the straight-line method. The depreciation and amortization methods are designed to amortize the cost of the assets over their estimated useful lives, in years, of the respective assets as follows:

Maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred. Improvements of a major nature are capitalized. At the time of retirement or other disposition of property and equipment, the cost and accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts and any gains or losses are reflected in income.

The long-lived assets of the Company are reviewed for impairment in accordance with ASC No. 360, “Property, Plant and Equipment” (“ASC No. 360”), whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. The recoverability of assets to be held and used is measured by a comparison of the carrying amount of an asset to the future undiscounted cash flows expected to be generated by the assets. If such assets are considered to be impaired, the impairment to be recognized is measured by the amount by which the carrying amount of the assets exceeds the fair value of the assets. During the year ended August 31, 2020, no impairment losses have been identified.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. The estimates and judgments will also affect the reported amounts for certain expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these good faith estimates and judgments.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in banks, money market funds, and certificates of term deposits with maturities of less than three months from inception, which are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which, in the opinion of management, are subject to an insignificant risk of loss in value. The Company had $2,142,072 and $4,423,965 in cash and cash equivalents at August 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Intangible Assets

The Company capitalizes certain costs to acquire intangible assets; if such assets are determined to have a finite useful life they are amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life.

The Company tests its intangible assets for impairment at least annually and whenever events or circumstances change that indicate impairment may have occurred. A significant amount of judgment is involved in determining if an indicator of impairment has occurred. Such indicators may include, among others and without limitation: a significant decline in the Company’s expected future cash flows; a sustained, significant decline in the Company’s stock price and market capitalization; a significant adverse change in legal factors or in the business climate of the Company’s segments; unanticipated competition; and slower growth rates.

Deferred Offering Costs

Deferred offering costs were capitalized and consisted of fees and expenses incurred directly in connection with the Company’s offering that was completed during the year ended August 31, 2020. At the time of the completion of the offering the amounts were transferred to additional paid in capital. Deferred offering costs included legal and accounting costs.

Foreign Currency Transactions

The Company has operations outside of the United States, which results in exposure to market risks from changes in foreign currency rates. The financial risk arises from the fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and the degrees of volatility in these rates. Currently the Company does not use derivative instruments to reduce its exposure to foreign currency risk. Nonmonetary assets and liabilities are translated at historical rates and monetary assets and liabilities are translated at exchange rates in effect at the end of the year. Revenues and expenses are translated at average rates for the year. Gains and losses from translation of foreign currency financial statements into U.S. dollars are included as other comprehensive income.

Financial Instruments

The Company follows ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures”, which defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC 820 also establishes a fair value hierarchy that distinguishes between (1) market participant assumptions developed based on market data obtained from independent sources (observable inputs) and (2) an entity’s own assumptions about market participant assumptions developed based on the best information available in the circumstances (unobservable inputs). The fair value hierarchy consists of three broad levels, which gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3). The three levels of the fair value hierarchy are described below:

Level 1

Level 1 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2

Level 2 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets; quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-derived valuations in which significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from, or corroborated by, observable market data.

Level 3

Level 3 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that are significant to the measurement of the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

Derivative Financial Instruments

The Company does not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market or foreign currency risks. We evaluate all of our financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives. For derivative financial instruments that are accounted for as liabilities, the derivative instrument is initially recorded at its fair value and is then re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the consolidated statements of operations. For stock-based derivative financial instruments, the Company used a Monte Carlo valuation model to value the derivative instruments at inception and on subsequent valuation dates. The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is evaluated at the end of each reporting period. Derivative liabilities are classified in consolidated the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement or conversion of the instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date.

Concentrations of Credit Risk

The Company’s financial instruments that are exposed to concentrations of credit risk primarily consist of its cash and cash equivalents. The Company places its cash and cash equivalents with financial institutions of high credit worthiness. At times, its cash and cash equivalents with a particular financial institution may exceed any applicable government insurance limits. The Company’s management plans to assess the financial strength and credit worthiness of any parties to which it extends funds, and as such, it believes that any associated credit risk exposures are limited.