While the economy is slowly coming back to normal, concerns over the hyper-transmissible delta variant are rising. According to the CDC, the number of new cases in the United States rose 10% this week. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained during a White House briefing that the country's lagging vaccination rate, coupled with the highly contagious delta variant, could account for the increase. "As the delta variant continues to spread across the country, we expect to see increased transmission in these communities unless we can vaccinate more people now," Walensky said, according to NBC News. Todos Medical Ltd. (OTC: TOMDF), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Dynavax Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: DVAX), Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRNE), Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN)
Since the pandemic spread throughout the United States and the world, the need for alternative healthcare options has become clear. As a result, new technologies and innovation will play a major role in drug and therapeutic developments in the coming years. For instance, the telehealth sector includes a wide range of technological segments under its umbrella. Specifically, technologies such as telemedicine, robots, and chatbots are being deployed to help gather information, reassure the population, treat patients, make diagnoses, and even prepare future vaccines.
Todos Medical Ltd. (OTCQB: TOMDF) announced yesterday, "a corporate update to the marketplace following the filing of its quarterly financials for the first quarter of 2021.
'The first half of 2021 has seen a dramatic shift in the COVID-19 marketplace in the United States,' said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Todos Medical. 'In light of the emerging Delta variant circulating widely in the US, there is now a clear need for novel COVID-19 antiviral therapies to protect the unvaccinated and those for whom authorized vaccines do not confer immunity, which includes a large portion of the elderly and those taking immune suppressants, against COVID-19 infection. The Biden administration recently underscored this need by pledging to invest $3.2 billion into research for COVID-19 antiviral therapies, similar to the US government's investments into COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. We believe this government recognition of the need for antivirals will provide a significant tailwind for the development of our Tollovir™ antiviral that is currently undergoing a Phase 2 clinical trial in Israel with plans progressing rapidly to expand the clinical development program to India. We are also optimistic about the interest we have seen from several potential international distribution partners for our dietary supplement Tollovid that provides immune support as a protease inhibitor. We expect to build a significant international distribution footprint in the second half of 2021 as we begin our initial roll-out of this important product.
'As the COVID-19 pandemic remains very fluid, the US has focused its efforts on vaccination in the first half of 2021, which has largely been successful in bringing down daily COVID-19 case numbers and has given confidence to state governments to re-open economies with limited COVID-19 restrictions. We see this vaccination focus creating a significant new opportunity for our recently acquired CLIA/CAP certified lab, Provista Diagnostics. Through Provista we are focusing our COVID-19 diagnostic testing strategy to prioritize delivering diagnostic services, including PCR and neutralizing antibody testing, thereby expanding beyond simply distributing testing supplies. This expansion into testing services serves to diversify our business into higher margin revenue in the COVID-19 space, as well as help us to expand our business development opportunities with the labs w...
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