Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at a clinical-stage biotech like Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL), are you seeing a high-risk micro-cap or a company on the cusp of a breakthrough in lipid-signaling therapeutics?

The company, which focuses on conditions like cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome, just reported compelling interim Phase 2 data in November 2025 for its lead candidate, ART27.13, showing patients on the top dose achieved a mean +6.4% weight gain versus a -5.4% loss on placebo, a huge clinical delta that is already driving meaningful partnering interest.

Still, as a development-stage firm with a modest market capitalization of about $3.93 million and a Q3 2025 net loss of $3.1 million, its financial health presents a classic biotech risk/reward profile, so you need to understand exactly how their pipeline fuels their value.

Let's unpack the history, the high insider ownership of 46.98%, and the business model behind their non-opioid pain and appetite programs.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) History

The history of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. is less about a single founding moment and more about a strategic transformation, pivoting a publicly-listed shell company into a clinical-stage biopharma focused on lipid-signaling pathways. The direct takeaway is that the company's current identity and pipeline, centered on novel therapeutics for cancer and pain, were forged in 2017 through a corporate restructuring and leadership change, not the original incorporation.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The entity was originally incorporated on May 2, 2011, under the name Knight Knox Development Corp.

Original location

The initial state of incorporation was Nevada, but the principal corporate office was later established in Solana Beach, California. The company also maintains a European office in Dublin, Ireland.

Founding team members

The current iteration of the company was shaped by the leadership transition in 2017. Peter O'Brien, the former CEO, resigned in March 2017, paving the way for the current executive structure. Gregory D. Gorgas, the current President and CEO, is the key executive who led the transformation and continues to drive the clinical strategy.

Initial capital/funding

The company was initially a non-operating entity. The capital injection that marked the beginning of the current biopharma focus occurred around the 2017 name change when Gregory D. Gorgas purchased 1,760,000 common shares for $1,760. More recently, the company raised significant capital in 2025, including a Post-IPO round of $9.47 million in August.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The most transformative period for Artelo Biosciences, Inc. was the pivot from a generic corporate shell to a specialized biopharma entity in 2017. This wasn't just a name change; it was a complete strategic overhaul, focusing the entire platform on modulating lipid-signaling pathways-a complex area of drug development. Honestly, that strategic focus is what gives the company its value today.

The next major shift occurred in 2025 as the pipeline matured from preclinical promise to clinical validation. You can see this in the financials: Research and Development expenses for Q3 2025 surged to $1.3 million, up significantly from the previous year, showing a clear commitment to advancing the pipeline. This is the cost of doing business in clinical development, but it's a necessary burn rate to achieve high-value milestones.

• The ART27.13 Efficacy Signal: The Phase 2 CAReS interim data in Q3 2025 was a game-changer. Showing a mean +6.4% weight gain in cancer patients is a strong signal, especially since cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome has no FDA-approved therapies. That result creates immediate strategic optionality, meaning a partnership or licensing deal is now a real near-term opportunity.
• The FABP Inhibitor Platform: Advancing ART26.12, a Fatty Acid Binding Protein (FABP) inhibitor, into human trials established Artelo as a leader in a novel mechanism of action for non-opioid pain and inflammation. This is defintely a long-term value creator.
• Financing Strategy: The decision to execute an At-The-Market (ATM) offering and a public offering in 2025, raising gross proceeds of $3.4 million in Q3 alone, was a critical move to extend the cash runway. This financing was essential to bridge the gap between clinical milestones and potential partnering deals.

What this estimate hides is the inherent risk of a clinical-stage company; the $3.1 million net loss in Q3 2025 underscores the need for continued capital or a successful partnership to sustain operations. To better understand the financial pressures, you should check out Breaking Down Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors. Finance: Monitor Q4 2025 cash burn rate against the $1.7 million cash balance by the end of this month.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Ownership Structure

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. is a publicly traded, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, and its ownership structure is heavily skewed toward retail investors, which is typical for a micro-cap biotech firm still in the drug development phase.

This high retail float means the stock's price movements can be extremely volatile, since a small number of large trades can have an outsized impact on the share price. You need to understand this structure because it dictates who drives the stock's short-term trading dynamics.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc.'s Current Status

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, meaning it is focused on research and development, not commercial product sales. It is a public company, trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol ARTL.

As of the third quarter of 2025, the company reported a net loss of approximately $3.1 million and held cash and investments totaling $1.7 million as of September 30, 2025. This financial position highlights the firm's reliance on capital raises to fund its pipeline, which is defintely a key risk for investors. The company continues to advance its lead programs, including ART27.13, which showed promising interim Phase 2 results for cancer-related anorexia.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership structure as of the end of the 2025 fiscal year shows a very low percentage of institutional holding, indicating limited interest from large funds like BlackRock or Vanguard. Here's the quick math on the breakdown using the most recent data:

What this estimate hides is the potential for significant dilution. The company has been actively raising capital, including an At-The-Market Offering Agreement for up to $6.5 million in July 2025, which increases the share count and reduces the value of existing shares.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by a seasoned team of biopharmaceutical executives who have experience across drug development and commercialization. Their experience is crucial for navigating the complex regulatory and clinical trial landscape of a development-stage company.

• Gregory D. Gorgas: President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He has served in this role since April 2017 and has over three decades of drug development experience.
• Mark Spring, CPA: Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Appointed effective November 1, 2025, bringing 30 years of life sciences financial leadership.
• Dr. Andy Yates: Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). He joined in January 2021 and previously spent 10 years as an executive at AstraZeneca.
• Dr. Steven Reich: Chief Medical Officer (CMO). He guides the clinical trial strategy, which is the core value driver for the company right now.

The average tenure for the management team is approximately 6.4 years, which shows stability in a volatile sector. For more on the strategic direction, you should review the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL).

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Mission and Values

Artelo Biosciences' core purpose is to develop novel therapeutics targeting lipid-signaling pathways, aiming to solve significant unmet medical needs for patients with cancer, pain, and neurological conditions. This focus on breakthrough science is the cultural defintely DNA that drives their clinical pipeline and strategic decisions.

Artelo Biosciences' Core Purpose

The company's mission and values are fundamentally tied to their work in the clinic, where they are advancing multiple differentiated programs to create high-impact therapies. For instance, their R&D expenses hit $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2025, showing a clear financial commitment to their development goals. If you're looking at the bigger picture, you'll see this investment is directly aimed at patient outcomes.

Official mission statement

The company is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics that modulate lipid-signaling pathways, including the endocannabinoid system (a biochemical communication network in the body). This mission breaks down into clear, actionable goals:

• Develop proprietary treatments for significant unmet needs in multiple diseases.
• Focus on conditions like anorexia, cancer, anxiety, pain, and inflammation.
• Apply leading-edge scientific, regulatory, and commercial discipline to drug development.

Vision statement

Artelo Biosciences' vision is centered on delivering transformative clinical results to patients while simultaneously creating substantial value for its shareholders. This is the classic biotech tightrope walk: patient benefit equals shareholder return. Interim Phase 2 data for ART27.13, for example, showed a mean +6.4% weight gain in cancer anorexia patients, a clinical win that immediately attracted meaningful partnering interest, directly linking science to value creation.

• Advance a clinical pipeline well-positioned to address large, underserved markets.
• Position lead compounds for potential partnerships to maximize therapeutic reach.
• Create substantial value for both patients and shareholders through clinical success.

To be fair, a net loss of $3.1 million in Q3 2025 shows they are still in the heavy investment phase, but the clinical progress is the engine driving the long-term vision. You can dive deeper into the ownership structure and market sentiment by Exploring Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Artelo Biosciences slogan/tagline

While no formal slogan is consistently used, the company's focus can be summarized by its primary scientific pursuit:

• Modulating Lipid-Signaling Pathways for Unmet Needs.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) How It Works

Artelo Biosciences operates as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, creating value by modulating lipid-signaling pathways, specifically the endocannabinoid system, to develop novel small-molecule treatments for conditions with high unmet medical needs like cancer, pain, and inflammation.

The company does not generate revenue yet, as it is focused solely on research and development (R&D) to advance its proprietary drug candidates through clinical trials, aiming for eventual commercialization or, more immediately, lucrative licensing and partnership deals with larger pharmaceutical firms.

Artelo Biosciences' Product/Service Portfolio

Artelo Biosciences' Operational Framework

The company's operational model is lean, focused on outsourcing clinical trials and manufacturing to specialized contract research organizations (CROs) and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), so they keep R&D spend efficient. This is a common strategy in early-stage biotech.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2025, Artelo Biosciences reported a Net Loss of $3.1 million, with R&D expenses at $1.3 million and General and Administrative (G&A) expenses at $1.8 million. The entire operation centers on hitting key clinical milestones to increase asset valuation, which is the defintely the main driver of stakeholder value right now.

• License or acquire novel drug candidates targeting lipid-signaling pathways.
• Execute staged clinical trials (Phase 1, 2, and 3) to demonstrate safety and efficacy.
• Generate compelling clinical data, like the ART27.13 Phase 2 results, to attract partnership interest.
• Secure non-dilutive funding through strategic partnerships or licensing deals to fund late-stage development.

Here's the quick math: The company's cash and investments totaled only $1.7 million as of September 30, 2025, which suggests a short cash runway, despite raising $3.0 million in a confidential offering and $0.4 million from an at-the-market program in Q3 2025. What this estimate hides is the potential for a large, near-term partnership to dramatically shift their financial health.

Artelo Biosciences' Strategic Advantages

Artelo Biosciences' market success hinges on its ability to translate promising preclinical and clinical data into high-value intellectual property and partnership agreements. Their focus on the endocannabinoid system (ECS) gives them a unique niche in treating complex, multi-symptom conditions.

• Differentiated Pipeline: Focus on modulating the ECS and Fatty Acid Binding Proteins (FABPs), which are novel targets for a wide range of diseases.
• Clinical Validation: Positive interim Phase 2 data for ART27.13 in cancer anorexia, showing a clear, measurable efficacy signal (weight gain and lean body mass increase) that is highly attractive to potential pharmaceutical partners.
• Proprietary IP: The ART12.11 cocrystal composition provides a patent-protected, chemically distinct form of CBD with superior pharmaceutical properties, enforceable for a long period.
• Low-Cost Model: Operating as a virtual biotech, they minimize overhead by outsourcing, keeping the burn rate relatively manageable for a clinical-stage company.

To be fair, the primary action for you as a decision-maker is to track the progress of the ART27.13 partnering discussions and the initiation of the ART26.12 MAD study, as these are the immediate catalysts for value creation. You can find more detail on the financial side here: Breaking Down Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) How It Makes Money

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which means it currently makes $0.0 million in revenue from selling approved products or licensing its drug candidates. Its financial engine is entirely focused on developing its drug pipeline-specifically ART27.13 for cancer-related anorexia and ART26.12 for pain-and its primary source of operating capital comes from equity financing and strategic partnerships to fund its research and development (R&D) expenses.

Given Company's Revenue Breakdown

For a clinical-stage biotech like Artelo Biosciences, the traditional revenue breakdown is simple: there is no commercial revenue. The company is in the value-creation phase, where its financial focus is on managing the cash burn rate (the net loss) until a major licensing deal or drug approval occurs. This table reflects the reality of its reported revenue streams as of the 2025 fiscal year.

Business Economics

The core economic model for Artelo Biosciences is a classic biotech 'discovery-to-partnering' strategy. They invest heavily in R&D to generate compelling clinical data, which then attracts a larger pharmaceutical partner who can fund the expensive Phase 3 trials and commercialization. The value is in the intellectual property (IP) and the clinical milestones.

• Value Creation Point: The company's value hinges on the positive interim Phase 2 data for ART27.13, which showed an average +6.4% weight gain in patients with cancer-related anorexia, driving 'meaningful partnering interest' from other pharmaceutical companies. This is the future revenue driver.
• Capital Reliance: Since there is no product revenue, the company relies on equity financing (selling stock) to cover its operating expenses. For example, in the third quarter of 2025, they completed a public offering and an At-The-Market (ATM) offering, raising gross proceeds of $3.4 million ($0.4 million from ATM and $3.0 million from the public offering). That's how they keep the lights on and the trials running.
• Future Revenue Model: Once a partnership is secured, revenue will shift to upfront payments, milestone payments tied to clinical and regulatory progress, and eventually, royalties on net sales. You can read more about the long-term vision in their Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL).

Given Company's Financial Performance

The company's financial performance is best measured by its cash burn rate and its ability to secure new funding, not profitability. This is a capital-intensive, high-risk, high-reward model.

• Net Loss: For the quarter ended September 30, 2025 (Q3 2025), the net loss was $3.1 million, a significant increase from the $1.1 million net loss in the same period in 2024. This widening loss reflects the accelerated pace of their clinical trials.
• R&D Expense Surge: Research and development expenses were $1.3 million in Q3 2025, up sharply from $0.3 million in Q3 2024. This is defintely a good sign for a biotech, as it shows they are putting capital to work advancing their pipeline.
• Cash Position: As of September 30, 2025, cash and investments totaled only $1.7 million. Here's the quick math: with a quarterly cash burn of roughly $3.1 million, this cash position is extremely tight and necessitates continuous financing efforts.
• Balance Sheet Health: The company's total assets were $4.26 million against total liabilities of $4.9 million as of September 30, 2025, resulting in a negative equity position. This suggests potential liquidity issues, as the current ratio is low at 0.39, which is far below the safe threshold of 1.0.

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL) Market Position & Future Outlook

Artelo Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a 0% market share, but its future trajectory hinges on advancing its first-in-class, non-opioid drug candidates into commercialization, targeting unmet needs in the $2.84 billion Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome (CACS) market and the growing Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) segment. The positive interim Phase 2 data for ART27.13 has already sparked meaningful partnering interest, which is the defintely the company's most critical near-term opportunity.

Competitive Landscape

As a pre-revenue company, Artelo Biosciences competes not against approved drugs for market share, but against the current standard of care and other companies developing novel therapies in the cannabinoid and lipid-signaling pathways. The table below shows the competitive landscape as of November 2025, comparing Artelo's novel approach to the market leaders in its target indications.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategy is focused on high-value, unmet medical needs, but its financial position creates an immediate, high-stakes challenge. You need to weigh the significant clinical upside against the substantial financial risk.

Industry Position

Artelo Biosciences is positioned as a niche innovator in the cannabinoid and lipid-signaling space, focusing on novel mechanisms of action rather than direct competition with large-market generics. Its pipeline is concentrated in areas where the current standard of care is either off-label or inadequate, which is a massive opportunity.

• Focus on Unmet Need: The lead asset, ART27.13, targets CACS, a $2.84 billion market where there is currently no FDA-approved drug, making a successful Phase 3 a potential game-changer.
• Clinical Momentum: Research and Development expenses jumped to $1.3 million in Q3 2025 (up from $0.3 million in Q3 2024), reflecting a critical ramp-up of clinical trial activity for ART27.13 and ART26.12.
• Platform Validation: The company's Fatty Acid Binding Protein (FABP) platform, which yielded ART26.12, is gaining traction with expanded data presentations and therapeutic possibilities beyond oncology, including dermatology.
• Regulatory Headroom: ART12.11, a proprietary cannabidiol (CBD) cocrystal tablet, is being developed to show improved pharmacokinetics (how the drug is absorbed and moves through the body) compared to existing approved CBD drugs like Epidiolex.

The company's long-term value creation depends entirely on translating its clinical promise into a commercial partnership or a registrational trial. You can review the foundational strategy in more detail here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. (ARTL).

Next step: Operations should immediately model the cash runway extension needed to reach the ART27.13 Phase 2 final data readout in 2026, assuming no partnership capital.