Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 30, 2024) - Telo Genomics Corp. (TSXV: TELO) (OTCQB: TDSGF) (the "Company" or "Telo") is pleased to announce that it has engaged Trusted Health Advisors (THA), a market leader specialized in guiding commercialization programs of innovative diagnostics products in the USA. THA will work with Telo's team to refine and accelerate Telo's go-to-market and partnership deployment plan, to facilitate the implementation of Telo's biomarker services for basic and clinical research and clinical diagnostic applications in Multiple Myeloma and the broader cancer field. The program will include facilitating partnerships and collaborations with basic and clinical researchers, Biopharmaceutical companies, Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), clinical laboratories and oncology providers and healthcare systems.
THA's engagement with Telo will be led by veterans in the diagnostics industry including Jay Wohlgemuth, MD; Ray Tabibiazar, MD; Richard Bender, MD; and Mr. Paul Owen. The team will also draw on the expertise of additional THA partners (www.trustedhealthadvisors.us).
Dr. Wohlgemuth has many years of experience leading healthcare innovation efforts in diagnostic testing, medical devices, virtual care and digital health, and pharmaceutical and companion diagnostics development. Dr. Wohlgemuth served as CMO, CSO and SVP for Quest Diagnostics over a period of 14 years. He also served as CMO of HealthTap, as well as development team leader at Genentech / Roche for Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) in multiple sclerosis and rheumatology, and as director of diagnostics for programs outside of oncology. Dr. Wohlgemuth was co-founder, CMO and VP R&D for CareDx, a leader in testing for transplant patients, for which he was awarded Technology Pioneer 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
Dr. Tabibiazar is a seasoned executive with leadership experience in the healthcare and biopharma industries, including venture capital, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a clinician-entrepreneur and managing director of "526 Ventures", he has focused on creating new ventures in the form of new companies or spinouts to translate innovative science into commercially viable products. Dr. Tabibiazar serves as Chair at SalioGen Therapeutics, and previously led Aravive Biologics as CEO, served as SVP, Corporate Development and Business Strategy at Twist Bioscience, and as a Venture Partner at Bay City Capital.
Dr. Bender is a board-certified oncologist who brings more than 40 years of experience in hematological malignancy with a special focus on multiple myeloma ("MM"). He received his medical degree from the UCLA School of Medicine and completed his internship and residency at UCLA-Harbor General Hospital followed by a hematology/oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. His past titles include Medical Director for Hematology/Oncology for Quest Diagnostics, Medical Director for Hematology/Oncology for Kaiser Permanente, and Chief Medical Officer for both Agendia and Signal Genetics. Dr. Bender has also served on the executive board of the American Cancer Society and has been retained by the FDA as a member of the Hematology and Pathology Devices Advisory Committee. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters.
Mr. Owen is currently a Managing Partner at Trusted Health Advisors (THA). Prior to joining THA, Paul served as the President and Interim CEO of imaware, a digital health platform providing advanced home-based testing and monitoring experiences throughout the pandemic. Mr. Owen has had a very productive and successful career in developing and bringing healthcare innovation to market. He previously served as Chief Business Officer and COO for Kailos Genetics and CEO of OneOme, an innovator in precision medicine and pharmacogenetics, co-founded by the Mayo Clinic. Prior to joining OneOme Paul led global commercialization for Invitae, a leader in hereditary disease diagnostics testing. Previously, Mr. Owen served as Vice Chair of Global Business Development for the Mayo Clinic and was the leader of Mayo Medical Laboratories' global commercial team - one of the world's largest full-service reference labs and held leadership roles at Zimmer-Biomet and Boston Scientific.
Driven by the progress of Telo's clinical studies that were presented at several leading oncology scientific and clinical conferences in 2023, and as part of the Company's commercialization strategy, the Company has prioritized the engagement of THA to guide the implementation of the technology in both biomarker research and clinical diagnostics markets, and form partnerships to facilitate the adoption of the advanced biomarker research services as well as predictive and prognostic tests for MM. In addition, THA will provide support and direction with respect to regulatory pathways, product development, launch and marketing initiatives.
"We are very excited to work with the Telo Genomics' team and to lead the Company's go-to-market strategy," said Mr. Owen, who is Managing Partner, THA and is leading the collaboration. "The TeloView platform offers a broad spectrum of valuable applications for oncology management with robust scientific and clinical evidence. The platform also enables the most advanced analysis and characterization of Telomeres for Basic and Clinical Researchers, Pharma, Oncology organizations and CROs."
About Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is a challenging and potentially deadly blood cancer that involves plasma cells, a type of blood cell that helps to fight infection. It is the second most common blood cancer with an incidence of 35,000 new cases every year in the US, and ~180,000 patients receiving treatment at any given time. Although the introduction of new generation therapy, including targeted immunotherapy, has increased the median survival rate to over 5 years, MM is still considered incurable. Two asymptomatic precursors, MGUS and SMM generally precede the progression to classic, symptomatic MM at yearly rates of 1% from MGUS and at 15% from SMM, respectively. To date, identifying patients who will more rapidly progress to active MM remains an important unmet clinical need. MM treatment includes various combinations of drugs with a cost as high as $150,000 per year per patient. As most patients will develop resistance to treatment and relapse within a median of 2 years, identifying them proactively remains another important and unmet need. Notably, the total addressable market for both of these MM assays is over 750,000 tests per year in the US.
About TELO
Telo Genomics Corp. is a biotech company pioneering the most comprehensive telomere platform in the industry with powerful applications and prognostic solutions. These include liquid biopsies and related technologies in oncology and neurological diseases. Liquid biopsy is a rapidly growing field of significant interest to the medical community for being less invasive and more easily replicated than traditional diagnostic approaches. By combining our team's considerable expertise in quantitative analysis of 3D telomeres with molecular biology and artificial intelligence to recognize disease associated genetic instability, TELO is developing simple and accurate products that improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of pathologists, clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers. The benefits of our proprietary technology have been substantiated in 160+ peer reviewed publications and in 30+ clinical studies involving more than 3,000 patients with multiple cancers and Alzheimer's disease. Our lead application, TELO-MM is being developed to provide important, actionable information to medical professionals in the treatment of multiple myeloma, a deadly form of blood cancer. For more information please visit www.telodx.com.
For further information, please contact:
Sherif Louis,
President & CTO
416-673-8487
info@telodx.com
MaRS Centre, South Tower,
101 College Street, Suite 200,
Toronto, ON, M5G 1L7
www.telodx.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends", "will", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the clinical efficacy of products, commercial viability of products, use of proceeds, and the ability of the TeloView® platform to deliver personalized medicine resulting in better treatments and outcomes are based on the Company's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including capital expenditures and other costs. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.
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