Your Trusted Science-backed Resource for Health, Nutrition, Beauty, and Lifestyle since 2012
Australian professor Thomas Borody who advocated Covid-19 therapy including ivermectin applied for patent
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
By
Dr. Frank Yap, MD
-
ASydneygastroenterologist who has been enthusiastically promoting an unapproved Covid-19 treatment, including to Australian politicians and general practitioners, has filed a patent in the US for the same treatment, allowing him to commercialise and profit from it, if approved.
The protocol involves a combination of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, zinc and the antibiotic doxycycline.
In December 2020 Borody filed a patent in the US for therapeutic combinations of drugs, including a combination of ivermectin, an antibiotic and zinc. Patenting a treatment means the owner of the patent is allowed to exclusively manufacture, market and profit from the drug until the patent expires, usually after 20 years.
Borody did not declare in numerous media interviews, or in his appeals to state and federal governments for funding and adoption of the treatment, that he also sought to potentially profit from it. While this is not illegal or in breach of professional regulations, medical and research experts Guardian Australia spoke to expressed concern that it may be unethical and a conflict of interest.
In a statement to the Guardian sent via lawyers, Borody denied any wrongdoing and said: “My client has never hidden the fact that he applied for patents over his -19 treatment. That is a matter of public record for some time now.”
On 23 August 2020, four months before filing the patent, Borody wrote to the Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, requesting funding for the therapy. Hunt responded that Borody should apply for funding through independent processes to study the ivermectin treatment as part of a clinical trial.
When asked if Borody had declared his intentions to patent the therapy, or made them aware once it was filed, a spokesperson for Hunt told Guardian Australia: “We are not aware of Prof Borody’s private interests and to the best of our knowledge have no record of having received any such declaration.”
Borody has been lobbying the federal government for more than a year to support the treatment, both before and after the filing of the patent.
The former Liberal MP and now leader of the United Australia party, Craig Kelly, has promoted Borody and the treatment on Twitter, and in February urged the national Covid evidence taskforce, which sets guidelines for clinicians, to “please look at the evidence” for the treatment, citing Borody’s work. It is not clear whether Kelly was aware of the patent application at the time.
On Twitter, Kelly has claimed government and pharmaceutical companies refuse to endorse ivermectin as a treatment because it is not profitable, given that it is a drug that has long existed and is cheap to produce. “The moment that Big Govt accepts cheap & accessible Ivermectin can be effective & would set us free quickly, it would stop Big Pharma making BIG $$$ Big Pharma JUST playing us for $$$,” Kelly wrote on Twitter on 11 July.
Kelly told Guardian Australia in a statement: “I have no problems with people like Prof Borody seeking to protect their intellectual property when they discover a new treatment, as do the big pharmaceutical companies who aggressively protect their intellectual property, even to the extent of denying access to developing countries.
“I first spoke to Professor Borody in May of last year … And I’m aware that he has invested a substantial sum of his own money to undertake trials and develop the intellectual property.”
Lobbying the government
In July this year Borody emailed a doctor who was also lobbying the government and attached his triple-drug “treatment protocol to control Covid-19 in NSW in conjunction with vaccination”. Borody suggested the treatment could “curb the current outbreak rapidly”.
“This can be rolled out across Australia not just NSW,” he wrote. He also attached a pre-print scientific paper that he claimed showed the efficacy of the protocol and a “near 100% cure” rate in 24 patients.
“Thank you for bringing this to the Minister,” Borody wrote to the doctor. “This approach adds a badly needed ANTIVIRAL TREATMENT to the VACCINE …. to stop the outbreak, [and] abolish all lockdowns. A zoom explanation for further details and plans would most likely be of help to a Ministerial assistant.”
But another study co-authored by Borody and published in August this year, titled “Ivermectin: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19”, does make clear that Borody is “a principal in Topelia Therapeutics (Ventura, California), which seeks to commercialize cost-effective treatments for COVID-19, including IVM [ivermectin]”. A “competing interest statement” in another study, a pre-print published in July, entitled “Effectiveness of Ivermectin-Based Multidrug Therapy in Severe Hypoxic Ambulatory COVID-19 Patients”, also states that Borody and another author have “patents relevant to the study”.
In August 2020 Borody’s Centre For Digestive Diseases issued a press release promoting the triple treatment, encouraging GPs to prescribe the drugs “off label”. Off-label prescribing, which is legal, is when a doctor prescribes a drug to treat a condition it is not indicated for by the manufacturer or approved to treat by drug regulators.
The press release again does not refer to any intention by Borody to file a patent for and profit from the same treatment.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration investigated Borody over his centre’s advertising of a prescription medicine as part of its promotion of the treatment protocol.
“The TGA investigated Prof Borody and the Centre for Digestive Diseases’ alleged advertising of a triple-therapy protocol for treating Covid-19 in mid to late 2020,” a spokesperson said. “The advertising compliance investigation was closed following removal of relevant content that promoted the use of the protocol, including a prescription medicine, from the website. Prescription medicines cannot be advertised in Australia unless a permission applies.”
The TGA was forced to change its prescribing rules for ivermectin in September this year due to concerns GPs were prescribing it to patients for the prevention or treatment of Covid-19 despite it not being approved for such use in Australia. There have been reports of poisonings among patients taking higher than recommended doses of the drug in a bid to combat Covid-19.
The National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, the body which makes official recommendations to doctors about how to treat the virus, advises in its clinical treatment guidelines not to use ivermectin for the treatment of Covid-19 outside randomised trials with appropriate ethical approval.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration changed its prescribing rules for ivermectin due to concerns it was being used to treat Covid despite not being approved for that. Photograph: Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy Prof Tari Turner, the director of evidence and methods at the taskforce, said: “When claims are made about the effectiveness of treatments, it is vital that any potential conflicts of interest are declared.
“This applies to panel members making guidelines, recommendations, and people designing and conducting research, and also to clinicians advocating treatments.
“These declarations need to be specific enough for others to be able to evaluate the extent to which any conflicts of interest might impact on the statements or claims those people are making.”
There are serious concerns about many studies by other researchers published to date that claim to show ivermectin is an effective Covid-19 treatment either alone or in combination with other drugs. Many of the studies have been criticised for serious flaws in their design and recruitment of patients, and have been shown to be unreliable. There are no strong studies with large numbers of patients published in peer-reviewed medical journals that show ivermectin alone or in combination with other drugs is an effective preventative against or treatment for Covid-19, though these trials are under way. Most studies to date have been too small to be clinically significant, or poorly designed.
Borody told the Guardian in a statement from his lawyer that he holds 162 patents for different treatments and therapies for various diseases. He referred to his previous work in the 1980s developing the first therapy, also a combination therapy, to fight H pylori and cure peptic ulcers. This went on to become the gold standard treatment for peptic ulcers globally.
“As a practising doctor and medical specialist, I have been at the forefront of medical research for more than 40 years focusing primarily on repurposing safe, effective, cheap and approved therapies resulting in FDA [US Food and Drug Administration] and TGA approved triple therapies,” Borody said in the statement.
“This includes the life-saving triple therapy for peptic ulcers with a track record of having saved millions of lives worldwide and 1,050 lives each year in Australia, as well as more than $10bn in hospitalisation costs.
“That would not have been possible unless the therapy had been patented.”
Assoc Prof Wendy Lipworth, from the University of Sydney’s Health Ethics centre, said: “There’s nothing wrong with applying for a patent.
“But declaring that patent, when you are becoming a public figure for promoting a treatment, is the bare minimum of your ethical obligations …
“As a medical professional, there is an obligation to appraise the evidence subjectively and give advice without bias. I think that’s where the tension is.
“There’s nothing wrong even with having a conflict of interest. What really is the issue is how it is managed, and the most important issue is not declaring it.”
She added: “Part of due diligence at the very least should be to have a declaration at the bottom about conflicts of interests to do with that treatment. To not do that is blatantly unethical.”
The benefit of applying for a patent in the US is it is a signatory to the international patent cooperation treaty, which means by applying in the US, applicants can simultaneously seek protection for an invention in a large number of countries.
The patent expert and principal of Stephens Lawyers, Katarina Klaric, said: “Once a patent is granted, the patent owner has a monopoly in respect of the invention, that is the exclusive commercial rights to exploit the invention the subject of the patent.
“This means that the patent owner can take legal action to stop others from manufacturing, marketing, distributing, selling or otherwise commercially exploiting the invention.”
There are considerable commercial benefits in having a patent because of the monopoly rights granted, she said.
“Monopoly rights enable patent owners to recoup some of the substantial investment made in research and development and clinical trial to get a drug to market.” Conflict of interest questions
On Wednesday, six days after Guardian Australia issued Borody with a series of questions asking about the patent and the extent to which he had declared the apparent conflict of interest, Topelia Australia issued a press release – months after the patent was filed – announcing it had “secured exclusive global patent rights to Covid-19 Antiviral Triple Therapy from Prof Thomas Borody”. The treatment, trademarked as Ziverdox, is a combination therapy including zinc, ivermectin and doxycycline.
Through his lawyer, Borody said although Covid-19 treatment patents had been filed under Borody’s name, those applications and the patents once granted are owned by Topelia Australia.
“There is no guarantee that Topelia will make any money from its patents such is the nature of the commercialisation and development of new pharmaceutical drugs, as well as the pharmaceutical industry,” Borody’s lawyer said.
An Australian Securities and Investments Commission search shows Borody is both the director and secretary of Topelia Australia. The address listed is the Centre for Digestive Diseases. According to the Topelia Australia press release issued this week, the company is hoping to raise $25m from investors in its bid to gain TGA approval, conduct clinical trials and eventually commercialise the treatment.
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, said Borody should declare the relevant patent when promoting his Covid-19 triple therapy. “Any doctor who is advocating to government or to a regulator for approval of a new treatment would of course have to declare their interest in that,” he said.
“It is a direct conflict of interest. The extent of your conflict has to be declared, not just that there is one, but you have to declare how big it is. Is it a financial one? Are you being paid? Do you have a commercial relationship, do your family members have one?
“And I think we have an obligation also to disclose to our individual patients if we have some kind of financial interest in our treatment that we’re providing or promoting. That’s all part of normal business as usual for the medical profession.”
In a statement to the Guardian sent via lawyers, Borody denied that he had “done anything wrong or illegal when advocating for the repurposing of existing medicines to treat Covid-19”.
“My client has never hidden the fact that he applied for patents over his Covid-19 treatment. That is a matter of public record for some time now. It is self-evident that if a prolific inventor, such as Dr Borody, is advocating the use of his Covid-19 treatment, then he is likely to have a financial interest in that treatment.
“He is a responsible doctor who holds himself to the highest standards in medical practice and research. He is a strong believer in fairness and equity. He is not afraid to challenge medical orthodoxy based on his evidence-based medical research.
“It is silly to allege that my client has an obligation to disclose his financial interest in his treatment when dealing with the federal health minister, members of parliament and others, [or in media appearances and interviews] when he is approaching them on the basis that: (a) he is a medical specialist who has invented his own Covid-19 treatment based on repurposed existing medicines; and (b) his reputation as a medical inventor speaks for itself …
“He shared his Covid-19 therapy for free with other Australian general practitioners who requested it. It was not illegal then, and it is not illegal now, for my client to have shared his protocol with Australian general practitioners who wanted it.”
Zinc is a powerful immune nutrient known for its benefits for providing immune health support and anti inflammation as well as for improving cold and respiratory symptoms, wound healing, acne reduction, and lowering the risk of age-related diseases. Research on atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus suggests that zinc deficiency may contribute to low-grade systemic inflammation. Types of Zinc What's the best absorbed zinc supplement form? We know there’s an ocean of information out there to navigate, so we’ve compiled a list of common zinc types and an overview on each zinc type below. There are several types of zinc supplements. Supplements contain several forms of zinc, including zinc gluconate, zinc citrate and zinc picolinate. The percentage of elemental zinc varies by form. Choosing a zinc supplement can be confusing because there are so many different types. zinc acetate zinc angstro
If you have been diagnosed with cancer, or have a loved one that is suffering from cancer, chances are you have heard about the Joe Tippens Cancer Protocol. The Fenbendazole Cancer Protocol has been gaining rapid interest over the past years following some fenbendazole advanced cancer success stories. We have seen tremendous demand for some sort of guide on how to use fenbendazole for cancer as there is also tremendous confusion both from the healthcare and non-healthcare communities. Joe Tippens founded the protocol after he was told a story about a scientist at Merck Animal Health that had been performing cancer research on mice. The research included injecting different types of cancers into different mice body parts. The scientists discovered, through trial and error, a product in their canine product line, fenbendazole, that was batting 1.000 in killing these different cancers in the mice. The scientist was later diagnosed with stage 4 brain cance
Despite numerous anecdotal accounts and reports from news outlets regarding its effectiveness in treating advanced and late stage cancer, mainstream media channels often emphasize that there have been no clinical trials to date confirming its safety and effectiveness as an anticancer drug for humans. The inspiring testimonials (below) you are about to read are shared by individuals who have generously recounted their remarkable journeys with the hope of motivating and uplifting fellow patients. It’s essential to acknowledge that while these case studies offer incredible hope, the Fenbendazole protocol isn’t a universal cancer solution. Related: Top 10 Cancer Fighting Supplements Below is the list categorised by different cancer types alphabetically. Fenbendazole Breast Cancer Success Stories Case 1: December, 2022 Condition: Stage 4 ER+PR+HER2- Metastatic Breast Cancer to bones A friend told me about the Joe Tippens Protocol and ivermectin the day after I got my diagnosis
Lumbrokinase, nattokinase, and serrapeptase are all enzymes that have been studied for their potential health benefits. They are all considered as proteolytic enzymes. Proteolytic enzymes have a variety of roles in the body, from helping to digest food to taking part in the immune response. What is Lumbrokinase? Lumbrokinase (LK) is an enzyme derived from earthworms is thought to aid in blood clot prevention, inflammation reduction, and circulation problems. Lumbrokinase for Blood Clots Thrombolytic agents typically used to dissolve clots are urokinase (u-PA), streptokinase, and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). These drugs, however, are not specific for fibrin and have adverse and dangerous side effects including severe bleeding and heavy blood loss which may result in death. In contrast, LK is very specific to fibrin as a substrate and it does not cause excessive bleeding. It can dissolve the fibrin itself or convert plasminogen to plasmin by inducing endogenous t-PA activity to
Can supplements, diet and lifestyle influence cancer risk? Are you able to supplement your way out of cancer? Dive into 1,000+ research studies, journal sources and peer-reviewed papers to find out. Many studies have showed that simple diet and lifestyle changes and natural compounds can actually “reprogram” cancer cells…and shut off some of their most notorious defense mechanisms. Current large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini from Google and Copilot from Microsoft might return generic answers to your questions. While these can be a starting point, they often lack the depth you might crave. While your cancer specialist or oncologist may not delve deeply into diet, lifestyle and supplements during consultations, these aspects can be crucial for your well-being. These natural diet and supplement strategies can be found in some common, everyday items available in any neighbourhood supermarket. So why isn’t it making headlines as the greatest cancer breakthrough of the 21st cen
NAC vs NAD vs NR vs NMN ? Due to the small alphabetical differences, these supplements are often mixed up and confused by most consumers. We will cover the essentials and explain about each of these supplements below. NAD NAD is derived from Nicotinamide Riboside (NR). The levels of NAD in our body determine the speed of aging process. In younger cells and tissues, the levels of NAD are higher. As a result, younger people tend to have better physical activity, cognitive function and potential for cell repair and regeneration. As we grow, the levels of NAD in our body start to decline. This is reflected in the form of slowed cognitive response, loss of memory and reduced agility. Research suggests it may be possible to reverse mitochondrial decay with dietary supplements that increase cellular levels of a molecule called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). NAD is a linchpin of energy metabolism, among other roles, and its diminishing level with age has been implicated in mitochond
The spike protein is naturally found in SARS-CoV-2, no matter the variant. In its native form in SARS-CoV-2, the spike protein is responsible for the pathologies of the viral infection. As of June 2024, federal data published by the US CDC found that 18.4% (National Estimate) of adults who previously had a COVID-19 infection are currently experiencing symptoms of long COVID. In its wild form it’s known to open the blood-brain barrier, cause cell damage (cytotoxicity) and, as Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA and DNA vaccine core platform technology , said in a commentary on News Voice , “is active in manipulating the biology of the cells that coat the inside of your blood vessels — vascular endothelial cells, in part through its interaction with ACE2, which controls contraction in the blood vessels, blood pressure and other things.” It’s also been revealed that the spike protein on its own is enough to cause inflammation and damage to the vascular system, even independ
NMN stands for Nicotinamide MonoNucleotide, a molecule naturally occurring in all life forms. NMN is the direct precursor of the essential molecule nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and is considered a key component to increase NAD+ levels in cells. NMN is a precursor to NAD+, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, meaning it becomes NAD+ through a series of chemical transformations. NAD+ is a critical found in every cell of your body, but levels of NAD+ naturally fall with age, making it — and NMN, as a result — crucial. However, NMN is like a large bed that movers are trying to get through a door: It doesn’t enter the cell easily. One way for NMN to enter the cell is for it to chemically transform into another molecule (called nicotinamide riboside, or NR) before it can enter the cell. NR has earned a name for itself as a highly efficient precursor to NAD+ and can enter the cell as is. NMN, meanwhile, sometimes becomes NR before entering the ce
FLCCC (Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care) I-MASK+ Protocol I-MASK+ Prevention & Early Outpatient Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 was designed for use as a prevention and in early outpatient treatment, for those who test positive for COVID-19. Component nutrients include vitamin D, C, melatonin, quercetin and zinc . All the component medicines are FDA-approved (except ivermectin), inexpensive, readily available and have been used for decades with well-established safety profiles. Please take note that I-MASK+ protocols are now: I-PREVENT protocol for prevention (prophylaxis) I-CARE protocol for early treatment . PREVENTION PROTOCOL As rates of infection with influenza and RSV rose in fall/winter 2022, FLCCC adapted th
Full Transcript Jan Jekielek: Dr. Kathleen Ruddy, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Dr. Kathleen Ruddy: Thank you for having me. Mr. Jekielek: You are deeply involved with the FLCCC [Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance] and you are also working on ivermectin as a possible treatment for cancer. This might be astonishing to some people. Ivermectin is a very famous drug for treating river blindness and has saved millions of lives. We know it’s effective for treating Covid-19, especially at its early stage. There have been a lot of studies done on this. Dr. Kathleen Ruddy: I have to say that I was also astonished that ivermectin has potential as an anti-cancer agent. I’m a cancer surgeon. We don’t do parasites. We don’t do ivermectin. I was not really even familiar with those people who use ivermectin. In the early days of Covid, when it became clear that ivermectin was effective in preventing and treating patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, I looked at t
Comments
Post a Comment