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ARTICLE | Company News

Stanford launches cannabinoid company Katexco for inflammatory disorders

October 26, 2018 7:10 PM UTC

Stanford University professors launched Katexco Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Toronto, Ontario) to develop therapies that target endocannabinoid and nicotine receptors to treat inflammatory diseases. Katexco has exclusively licensed IP from the university. The IP was generated by Stanford professors Lawrence Steinman, who is also Katexco's chairman and co-founder, and Jonathan Rothbard, the biotech's co-founder, CEO and CSO.

While at Stanford, the co-founders showed that a receptor for amyloid proteins associated with neurological diseases -- nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha 7 (CHRNA7) -- is found on immune cells in the brain and shares a molecular signaling pathway with cannabinoid. The researchers found that small molecules can engage the receptor on immune cells and help treat inflammatory disorders...