Israeli cancer screening and follow-up company Todos Medical has filed a prospectus to raise money on Wall Street. In the first stage, the Rehovot-based company with trade over-the-counter. The prospectus includes an offer to sell by the existing shareholders and immediately afterwards the company plans raising $5 million. To date, Todos Medical has raised $3 million from private investors.
Todos Medical has developed a platform for cancer screening through a blood test.
Todos Medical cofounder and CEO Rami Zigdon said, "The company's technological base was developed at Ben Gurion University and the concept is to observe the body's immune system because when there is cancer - it tries to fight it. The idea is that the immune system has protected us throughout evolution and it is the most sensitive sensor that there is in order to combat cancer. Our system allows identifying biochemical processes through relatively inexpensive observation of optics. In the EU and US, they have set a target ofd reaching 500 million checks annually and that's the size of the potential market."
Zigdon says for example that in Israel it is routine to provide colonoscopies for those over 50 and mammograms for women over 40. He said, "In mammograms there is 65% identification capability, in other words out of every 100 women, a mammogram won't identify breast cancer in 35 women. There are also many false positives when something is discovered that turns out to be a cyst. We want to save these procedures. We are not replacing the mammogram and the colonoscopy but introducing an earlier stage which is cheaper for mass use."
What stage of development have you reached?
"We have completed four clinical trials in Israel and a pilot in Eastern Europe. We have the CE market (European marketing mark) and we are set for some larger trials worldwide including the US and the aim of the funds we are raising is to finance them. Our system is essentially a platform, which means that in no time at all we can introduce more new products. Nothing is stopping us from running ahead quickly.
According to the prospectus, if the company successfully raises $2-5 million, it will carry out clinical trials in Israel and India and a small pilot in the US. If it raises less than $2 million, it will focus on completing its current trials and commercializing its product in Israel and India.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 29, 2016
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