NEW YORK — Todos Medical said on Thursday that it has acquired Provista Diagnostics for a total of $7.5 million in cash and stock.
Under the terms of the deal, Rehovat, Israel-based Todos acquired Provista for $1.25 million in cash upfront, an additional $1.25 million cash payment before July 1, $1.5 million in Todos common stock priced at $.0512 per share, and a $3.5 million convertible promissory note.
Todos announced in January 2020 that it had signed an exclusive option agreement to acquire Provista from Ascenda Biosciences and early this year secured a $3.4 million investment from venture capital firm Yozma Group Korea to help fund the deal.
Through the acquisition, Todos gains Provista's Videssa proteomic breast cancer test, which is designed to help diagnose the disease following an inconclusive mammogram and slated for market launch before the end of the year. Alpharetta, Georgia-based Provista also operates a PCR- and ELISA-capable lab currently performing SARS-CoV-2 testing.
Jorge Leon, Todos' chief medical and scientific officer, said in a statement that Todos anticipates using the sample volume from Videssa to further refine the algorithms underlying its investigational immunosurveillance blood testing assay for various cancers. Todos also aims to scale up Provista's lab to automate and increase its SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity, as well as enable the use of multiple platforms in parallel.
"With COVID-19 testing as the initial commercial anchor to our Provista lab strategy, we will also now be able to validate our lab-based TolloTest 3CL protease enzymatic assay in the US and begin deploying it to monitor this biomarker of emerging importance in COVID-19," Gerald Commissiong, president and CEO of Todos, said in the statement. "We expect that Provista will serve as the base for all of Todos' operational activities in the United States going forward, including COVID-19, cancer, and Alzheimer's diagnostic tests we intend to bring into the market."