Wall Street’s War Against SuperBugs.
SuperBug Stock Review? Yep, you knew we couldn’t resist with all of the CoronaVirus news hitting the tape. Since we’re more interested in all Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria (superbugs) and deadly Viruses that the CDC says are a ‘Global Threat’ – we decided to name the sector coverage the SuperBug Stock Review instead of a CoronaVirus Stock Review.
What both scares us and excites us in Wall Street’s War Against Superbugs like Candida Auris, C-diff and Neisseria is that the CDC says 10 million people per year could ‘drop-off’ if we don’t find a fix to this growing problem. Last year 3 million people fell victim and 700,000 died because old antibiotics no longer work against drug-resistant bacteria. That’s much scarier than CoronaVirus – but on the flip side, a massive opportunity to Wall Street-funded medtechs. So here we are.
Here’s our first name in the game. These aren’t recommendations (as yet) but interesting names. Soon to launch SuperBugSurvivalGuide will cover all news related to the spread. For now, we’ll update on a Flipboard magazine.
RELATED: Corona Virus Stocks in the News (Bloomberg, Benzinga).
Todos Medical Announces Publication Demonstrating Potential of FTIR Platform to Identify Bacterial and Viral Infections.
- Todos evaluating applying its proprietary FTIR platform towards the novel coronavirus
- Seeking appropriate partners to get access to patient samples to train its AI platform
REHOVOT, Israel and NEW YORK, March 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Todos Medical Ltd. (OTCQB: TOMDF), a pre-commercial stage in-vitro-diagnostics company focused on the development of blood tests for the early detection of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, today announced the publication of data from a human clinical study in the scientific journal Analytical Chemistry entitled “Differential Diagnosis of the Etiologies of Bacterial and Viral Infections Using Infrared Microscopy of Peripheral Human Blood Samples and Multivariate Analysis”. The data demonstrate that the use of the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technique on peripheral blood samples yields a differential diagnosis when seeking to make a clinical diagnosis between patients with viral infections, bacterial infections and healthy controls.
“With the recent explosion of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) worldwide, definitively diagnosing viral infections versus bacterial or other types of infections that present with similar symptoms has become paramount in order to appropriately triage patients and guide treatment decisions for healthcare professionals,” said Gerald Commissiong, President & CEO of Todos Medical. “Todos’ proprietary FTIR blood testing platform that focuses on the immune system’s reaction to cancer has received CE Marks in Europe for the diagnosis of breast cancer and colon cancer, has recently achieved strong analytical performance results from our proprietary sample preparation methods, and is currently enrolling a pre-commercial breast cancer study in Romania with distribution partner Orot+ (a division of Orot Luces) ahead of an expected commercial launch in Romania later this year. Based on these recent successes and this publication from the Company’s licensors at Ben Gurion University, we have now formally begun to evaluate the commercial feasibility of applying our technology towards the diagnosis of bacterial and viral infections, including coronavirus. Because we use AI to create the algorithms required to differentially diagnose cancer, we believe the rate-limiting step towards creating algorithms for viral and bacterial infections on our platform is access to sufficient viral and bacterial patient samples in order to create those new algorithms. As such, we have begun outreach efforts to determine the potential of obtaining such samples from coronavirus-affected jurisdictions.”
ABSTRACT ( https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b00017 )
Human viral and bacterial infections are responsible for a variety of diseases that are still the main causes of death and economic burden for society across the globe. Despite the different responses of the immune system to these infections, some of them have similar symptoms, such as fever, sneezing, inflammation, vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue. Thus, physicians usually encounter difficulties in distinguishing between viral and bacterial infections on the basis of these symptoms. Rapid identification of the etiology of infection is highly important for effective treatment and can save lives in some cases. The current methods used for the identification of the nature of the infection are mainly based on growing the infective agent in culture, which is a time-consuming (over 24 h) and usually expensive process. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of the mid-infrared spectroscopic method for rapid and reliable identification of bacterial and viral infections based on simple peripheral blood samples. For this purpose, white blood cells (WBCs) and plasma were isolated from the peripheral blood samples of patients with confirmed viral or bacterial infections. The obtained spectra were analyzed by multivariate analysis: principle component analysis (PCA) followed by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), to identify the infectious agent type as bacterial or viral in a time span of about 1 h after the collection of the blood sample. Our preliminary results showed that it is possible to determine the infectious agent with high success rates of 82% for sensitivity and 80% for specificity, based on the WBC data.
About Todos Medical Ltd.
Todos Medical Ltd. is an in-vitro diagnostic company engaged in the development of blood tests for the early detection of a variety of cancers, and also has initiated the development of blood tests for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease through Breakthrough Diagnostics, Inc., its joint venture with Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc. Todos has developed two cancer screening tests based on TBIA (Todos Biochemical Infrared Analyses), a method for cancer screening using peripheral blood analysis. The TBIA screening method is based on the cancer’s influence on the immune system, which triggers biochemical changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma. This proprietary and patented method incorporates biochemistry, physics and signal processing. The company’s two cancer screening tests, TM-B1 and TM-B2, have received the CE mark.
Todos owns 19.99% of Breakthrough Diagnostics, Inc., a joint venture with Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc. (OTCPK:AMBS) that is developing the LymPro Test®, a blood test for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. Todos has exercised its option to acquire Breakthrough, and expects to close on that transaction in the first half of 2020. Todos has also entered into an exclusive option to acquire breast cancer blood testing company Provista Diagnostics, Inc. that is commercializing the Videssa® breast cancer blood test.
For more information, the content of which is not part of this press release, please visit http://www.todosmedical.com
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. For example, forward-looking statements are used when discussing our expected clinical development programs and clinical trials. These forward-looking statements are based only on current expectations of management, and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties related to the progress, timing, cost, and results of clinical trials and product development programs; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approval or patent protection for product candidates; competition from other biotechnology companies; and our ability to obtain additional funding required to conduct our research, development and commercialization activities. In addition, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: changes in technology and market requirements; delays or obstacles in launching our clinical trials; changes in legislation; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; lack of validation of our technology as we progress further and lack of acceptance of our methods by the scientific community; inability to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of our products; unforeseen scientific difficulties that may develop with our process; greater cost of final product than anticipated; loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition; and laboratory results that do not translate to equally good results in real settings, all of which could cause the actual results or performance to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, Todos Medical does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For a more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties affecting Todos Medical, please refer to its reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Investor and Corporate Contact:
Kim Sutton Golodetz
LHA Investor Relations
Senior Vice President
(212) 838-3777
[email protected]
Corporate Contact
Daniel Hirsch
Todos Medical
Investor Relations
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (347) 699-0029
