Todos Medical Says It Wants to Outfox COVID-19 & Cancer Along With Rivals Pfizer & Merck With New Theranostic Approach

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have shown how crucial medical innovation is for the world. As the COVID-19 virus mutates into new variants, some professionals in the medical field, including Dr. Anil R Diwan, president and chairman of NanoViricides Inc. NNVC, have wondered whether booster shots developed by companies like Pfizer Inc. PFE, Johnson & Johnson JNJ are the best solution to curb the deadly virus.

It seems like the world has switched its focus to the coronavirus pandemic and is giving less attention to other deadly diseases such as cancer. In terms of cancer, the disease ranks as the leading cause of death in most countries. Cancer is the 2nd-most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease. According to an American Cancer Society report, an estimated 608,570 people will die of cancer in 2021.  This is one of the driving factors behind Merck’s MRK earnings report.  

Todos Medical Ltd. TOMDF states that it is a company that is trying to pioneer real-world solutions and not simply regurgitating a new version of the status quo like big pharma sometimes does. Gilead Science’s GILD remdesivir is a classic example of a repackaged drug that has marginal benefit but has to be used or the doctors could be held accountable for malpractice. At its core Todos Medical is a medical diagnostics company that is meshing in therapeutic solutions to create a much more efficacious approach. They could easily be mistaken as an individualized medicine company, but they have developed their own niche. They are a theranostics company that is a combination of therapy and diagnostics and their approaches could change the paradigms of COVID-19 and cancer in the very near future.

Todos’ Lab Solutions?

Todos says that it empowers its clientele by offering state-of-the-art solutions for medical labs looking to scale. Through its subsidiary company Provista Diagnostics Inc., the company helps in the early diagnosis of diseases to improve outcomes

Provista’s bread and butter come from its offerings of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing solutions for healthcare professionals, testing labs, and policymakers. The company’s modern clinical laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and it offers PCR kits and reagents for molecular tests and point-of-care antibody and antigen tests.

In June 2020, Todos announced it had entered into a distribution partnership with Meridian Health Services Network to have its testing solutions supplied to a nationwide health network to help in administering testing solutions in schools, workplaces, and religious communities across the U.S.

Todos states that its Videssa breast cancer blood test is a patented solution to early detection of breast cancer in women with dense breasts that typically have difficult-to-interpret imaging. The blood test is a proteomic biomarker assay made up of tumor-associated antibodies (TAAB) and serum protein markers, which has proven to be useful in the stand-alone detection of breast cancer. When combined with imaging, Videssa’s blood test can improve diagnosis accuracy and give a clear picture to healthcare specialists who are presented with inconclusive assessments, thereby reducing the need for unnecessary, invasive, and expensive biopsies that many women have to undergo every time they receive a mammogram.

Todos says it is also developing an Alzheimer’s disease blood diagnostic test called the Lymphocyte Proliferation Test (LymPro Test). The test measures cell cycle dysregulation in peripheral white blood cells (lymphocytes). After Biogen Inc. BIIB controversial approval of Aduhelm for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, a cheaper and effective alternative to the costly amyloid PET imaging screening test has become an urgent necessity.  This is why the LymPro has massive potential in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. The most recent LymPro clinical study showed a very strong correlation (p=0.00000216, r = 0.85) when amyloid PET imaging standardized update value ratio (SUVr). 

Research and Development Pipeline

Todos and its subsidiaries state they are working on a number of groundbreaking, state-of-the-art medical solutions.

The TolloTest is a clinical-stage diagnostic test that measures 3CL protease from upper respiratory samples, the main protease (MPRO, 3CL protease, 3CLPRO, Nsp5) found in coronaviruses that is essential for virus replication. Todos is in the process of advancing the 3CL protease biomarker towards approval as a new test that measures the level of viral contagiousness.

This could provide earlier COVID-19 detection which would make quarantining more effective by dramatically lowering the chance of spread.  It would also provide a  more accurate decision with respect to when PCR-positive patients are should be released from quarantine. Currently, policy forces many to quarantine for longer because of continued PCR-positive results when actually they are no longer contagious because of the absence of the 3CL protease.

The company has also developed the Total Biochemical Infrared Analysis (TBIA) process, a screening method for solid tumors using peripheral blood spectroscopy analysis. The process involves analyzing the biochemistry of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates of infected cells from the blood of a patient using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

Protease Inhibitors

Todos is also developing Tollovir which is an oral antiviral MPRO or 3CL protease inhibitor, which the company believes could be a strong therapeutic candidate for the treatment of COVID-19.

Pfizer has clearly demonstrated that the MPRO could be the key to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Their new website details how the MPRO inhibitor stop virus replication and recent data published in Nature Neuroscience provides an insight into how MPRO essentially turns off the cellular virus alarm system in the brain’s blood vessels, thereby delaying immune system response that allows the virus to replicate uninhibited in the brain, and potentially outlining the way the virus accomplishes immune system downregulation all over the body.  A virus is a strand of RNA or DNA that breaks into a host cell, hijacking its systems to make the cell make copies of the virus. Studies have shown that protease inhibitors can stop the replication of a virus by tightly binding to the protease enzymes, blocking the virus’s ability to cling to them. What makes Tollovir unique when compared with Pfizer’s drug candidate is that Tollovir also has strong anti-cytokine properties that could be the key to improving outcomes in the hospital setting and severe outpatient settings. Todos’ Phase 2 clinical trial for hospitalized COVID-19 patients is expected to have an interim data readout in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Todos manufacturers 2 protease-inhibiting dietary supplements: Tollovid and Tollovid Daily. These protease inhibitors have been scientifically tested and proven to support the immune system and inhibit 3CL protease. The company is definitely not making any claims that it can treat COVID-19 and prefers that people do not connect the dots.  The quality ingredients provide protection for the immune system and are high in antioxidants to help boost skin health and fight inflammation.

In September, the company received approval to sell Tollovid and Tollovid Daily on Amazon.com AMZN, tapping into a much bigger consumer base of one of the largest e-commerce stores in the world.

Summary

Todos believes it is a mesh of therapeutics and diagnostics in perfect symbiosis. In the evolution of the company, diagnostics led to therapies like Tollovir, and now they are intertwined. Good diagnosis leads to proper treatment and that means the tests need to be accurate. The Provista Diagnostics testing lab is currently ramping up through automation to meet the needs of highly accurate and quickly available COVID-19 tests. In the future, the lab will be in a position to run proprietary diagnostics in Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, and more when required. Before vaccines became a tool to control contagion, widespread testing was primarily used. Unfortunately, the Delta variant reduced the effectiveness of the vaccines at controlling contagion and has led to greater breakthrough infections as the vaccines wane.  Testing using the cPass neutralizing antibody test is front and center again in order to determine the level of neutralizing antibodies to prevent contagion. As tens of millions of vaccines wane the cPass is the only scientifically based test with an EUA that can identify immune protection levels in consultation with a physician. Whether it's a covid-19 or a cancer diagnosis, Todos is using testing to make therapy more accessible and effective.  

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.