180 Life Sciences Announces an Agreement for a Clinical Pharmacology Study Testing a New Formulation of CBD for Enhanced Oral Uptake

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 180 Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: ATNF) (“180 Life Sciences” or the “Company”), today announced that an agreement has been reached with Prof. Avi Domb of the Hebrew University, School of Pharmacy, and with Prof. Elyad Davidson, of Hadassah Hospital, to perform a clinical pharmacology (“Pharmacokinetic” or “PK”) study of the uptake of cannabidiol (CBD) in a formulation which can be delivered as a pill orally. The PK study will seek to determine how much CBD is taken up into the blood of volunteers.

While CBD preparations have previously been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for rare forms of childhood epilepsy, a major problem in working with CBD is its low and unpredictable and variable uptake following the most convenient delivery form, by mouth, as CBD in oil. This has hampered progress and clinical trials seeking potential uses for CBD, such as for the treatment of pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), head trauma, and more, where reports have suggested the possibility of benefits. To help try to solve this problem, Prof. Domb and colleagues have developed “ProNanoLipospheres” (PNL), a mixture of components available over-the-counter, which form little droplets and have been shown to be absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into blood. The dosage form has been shown in preliminary testing in rats to increase uptake of CBD, decrease absorption variability and enable controlled release pharmacokinetics. Based on these animal results, a human PK study is being designed to test whether the formulation increases CBD blood levels after oral administration. This PK study will be performed at Hadassah Hospital executed by an experienced team under the supervision of Prof. Davidson and Prof. Domb, in collaboration with 180 Life Sciences. The currently available plant-based CBD formulations may contain up to 100 compounds and not just the CBD molecule. From prior work over several years with Prof. Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University, who discovered the human endocannabinoid system, a number of synthetic CBD compounds were developed, that in animal models exhibited both anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Prof. Mechoulam recently passed away but leaves a legacy that may provide substantial clinical benefit to patients suffering from pain.

“We believe that the new pill formulation has the potential to dramatically improve the availability and absorption of CBD taken orally as a pill, and plan to facilitate clinical studies to test this,” said Prof. Sir Marc Feldmann, Executive Co-Chairman of 180 Life Sciences, who continued, “If successful, we believe that this may significantly expand the use of CBD and derivatives and may permit their use in multiple conditions including most importantly pain (a huge unmet need where there are few safe drugs), anxiety and, as discussed below, weight management. Recent human studies have demonstrated that CBD can improve post-operative pain and might decrease opioid consumption, an important goal⁽¹⁾. This is an exciting prospect and Prof. Domb’s team has a track record in formulating medications for therapeutic use.”

”We are delighted to collaborate with the team at 180 Life Sciences, including Prof. Marc Feldmann, who pioneered the development of anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) antibodies for rheumatoid arthritis,” said Prof. Domb of the Hebrew University, School of Pharmacy. “Ultimately, our team’s formulation may use pure synthetic CBD, which we believe in many countries is not subject to controlled substance regulations, but in other countries may be subject to local regulations, and which we believe will be convenient to administer”, continued Prof. Domb.

“We are excited to be working with talented cannabis research pioneers such as Prof. Domb,” said Dr. James Woody, CEO of 180 Life Sciences, who continued, “We believe that this work could potentially validate the effectiveness of solid PNL, and if so, could potentially open up the door to many new uses to be considered and researched. These may include combination therapy including anti-inflammatory biologics, together with the analgesic properties of CBD when administered in appropriate doses with this potential new convenient pill formulation. In addition, considering our recent provisional patent filing describing the potential combination treatment of using CBD with GLP-1 agonists to suppress appetite, delivery of CBD in a solid pill formula for obesity and weight management may provide a convenient therapy.

180 Life Sciences has filed patents to protect its discoveries. The Company’s focus now is on our core assets that are in the clinic, which is comprised of our anti-TNF program for Dupuytren’s disease (fibrosis of the hand) and delirium, and now CBD.”

(1)   Talk by Michael J. Alaia, MD, FAAOS concerning the efficacy of an orally absorbed CBD tablet for postoperative pain relief following rotator cuff surgery. Presented at the 2022 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.

About 180 Life Sciences Corp.

180 Life Sciences Corp. is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutics for unmet medical needs in chronic pain, inflammation and fibrosis by employing innovative research, and, where appropriate, combination therapy. The Company’s current primary focus is a novel program to treat several inflammatory disorders using anti-TNF (tumor necrosis factor).

Forward-Looking Statements
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These forward-looking statements and factors that may cause such differences include, without limitation, risks regarding the outcome of the pharmacokinetics (PK) study discussed above, the timing and costs thereof, and the ability to obtain sufficient participants; our ability to commercialize PNL and our other drug candidates, if proven successful for treatment in trials; risks regarding whether the administrative processes required for the issuance of patents will be completed in a timely manner or at all, whether patents, if issued, will provide sufficient protection and market exclusivity for the Company, whether any patents held by the Company may be challenged, invalidated, infringed or circumvented by third parties; events that could interfere with the continued validity or enforceability of a patent; the Company’s ability generally to maintain adequate patent protection and successfully enforce patent claims against third parties; the timing of, outcome of, and results of, clinical trials statements regarding the timing of our planned marketing authorization application (MAA) submission to the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and our planned New Drug Application submission (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), our ability to obtain approval and acceptance thereof, the willingness of MHRA to review such MAA and the FDA to review such NDA, and our ability to address outstanding comments and questions from the MHRA and FDA; 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Investors:
Jason Assad
Director of IR
180 Life Sciences Corp
Jassad@180lifesciences.com