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The Exchange for Entrepreneurs™ Podcast

Dr. Ahmad Doroudian on the Potential of a COVID-19 Treatment | #HashtagFinance

August 13, 2020 CSE - Canadian Securities Exchange Episode 140

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The Exchange for Entrepreneurs™ Podcast

Aug 13, 2020 Episode 140

CSE - Canadian Securities Exchange

Dr. Ahmad Doroudian on the Potential of a COVID-19 Treatment, Not a Cure | #HashtagFinance

The CSE's Barrington Miller chats with Dr. Ahmad Doroudian, CEO of BetterLife Pharma Inc. (CSE:BETR), about BetterLife’s ambitions to advance on the AP-003 clinical trial programs of Altum Pharmaceuticals Inc., which includes a therapeutic pipeline consisting of three products, including AP-003, a patent-pending interferon a2b (IFNa2b) inhalation formulation. Recent studies in China and the UK have provided data that suggest the therapeutic efficacy of interferon-based treatments for COVID-19.

Here's an overview of what’s covered in this edition of the #HashtagFinance podcast:

3:47 - What BetterLife is doing about COVID-19.

7:01 - How early their product can be used, and if it can be used for prevention.

9:32 - What BetterLife was working on before the COVID-19 pandemic.

11:32 - The differentiators between BetterLife and other companies developing COVID-19 treatments.

15:38 - Taking the treatment approach, instead of the cure approach, to COVID-19, similar to HIV.

19:58 - Phase II clinical trials, and what that means for an investor.

BetterLife Pharma Inc. is an emerging biotechnology company engaged in the development and commercialization of therapeutic pharmaceuticals as well as drug delivery platform technologies. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, BLife Therapeutics Inc., BetterLife is refining and developing drug candidates from a broad set of complementary interferon-based technologies that have the potential to engage the immune system to fight virus infections, such as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and human papillomavirus (HPV), and/or to directly inhibit tumours to treat specific types of cancer.

Related links

https://blifetherapeutics.com/

https://thecse.com/en/listings/life-sciences/betterlife-pharma-inc

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it's James here welcoming you to this presentation of the hashtag finance podcast. This is just a reminder that if you like video, all of our CEO and expert interviews are featured on the hashtag finance playlist on CCTV, including the show that you were about to listen to remember that a CSC space TV on YouTube. And finally, this is just a friendly reminder that the views information or opinions expressed during the podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian securities exchange and its employees. So happy listening, and now enjoy the show. This is hashtag it presented to you by the Canadian securities exchange the exchange for entrepreneurs with your host Barrington Miller.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Welcome to an edition of hashtag finance. I'm your host, Barrington to Miller and the Canadian securities exchange director of listed company services. And today I'm here with the C you know, from better life pharma, mr.[inaudible]. How do you do, sir?

Speaker 1: 1:05

I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Uh, first and foremost, how was your family doing during COVID?

Speaker 1: 1:15

Family's been doing very well, just a knock on wood we're in Vancouver and seem to be holding up pretty well. Uh, it was trying times for the last four months, but everyone's safe and healthy. How about yours?

Speaker 2: 1:33

Uh, we are all good. We've been working from home. Uh, most of the stock exchange, I'd say at least 90%, uh, is working from home. Um, we've been deemed an essential service, so, you know, thankfully there's been, uh, thankfully on that front, we haven't had, uh, any change we've actually went and talked to people. We've actually been busy busier. It seems, uh, nothing has slowed down. Um, you know, we have almost a 600 tradable securities and we're still getting listings, uh, you know, in cannabis and psychedelics, uh, or psilocybin. Um, of course mining is, I keep saying mine is coming back. Um, my is coming back, but, uh, but you know, we're here to talk about what's going on in the world and to find out a little bit more about your company and for starters, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and how you came to be a better life?

Speaker 1: 2:41

Thank you. Um, I have, uh, been in the pharmaceutical business for the last, uh, 30 years or so. I have a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from UBC, uh, in drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, all that good sciences that I haven't used in the last, uh, 30 years, because I've been mostly an entrepreneur starting companies related to pharma or biotech, building management around it and capitalizing it, uh, and, uh, taking it from stock exchange from private to public creating liquidity and, uh, funding, good, good clients and good programs and good products, um, and happy to be in this space right now because we have a great team and a great platform right now to make a difference, uh, hopefully in the treatment of cohort 19, which is the other stated many parts of the world right now, of course, everybody knows that it's around and what's happening on a global scale. What is better working? What are they doing? And whatever come up with a better life is, um, uh, working is merging with a company called[inaudible] pharmaceuticals, which I was the founder as well. And they, one of the projects of all time was the drug that's used for the treatment of HPV virus is called interferon alpha to be. And for three, four years, ultim has been developing that product. And when, uh, earlier this year COVID a pandemic head. It was through some, uh, previous literature. It was clear that into federal for TV has antiviral activities and it couldn't be specific against COVID. And, um, later in January, early February study was done out of, uh, uh, will had that, which was the epicenter of the pandemic like Canadian researchers led by dr. Eleanor fish at Toronto general that showed that into Philadelphia to be an inhalation form is, could be effective in treating COVID patients early stage. So, uh, the team, uh, quickly started working on developing this inhalation form and looking at a clinical plan to use this in patients that are diagnosed or tested positive for COVID. And we've had great, uh, you know, set of, uh, scientific and, uh, and clinical data in the last, uh, last couple of months supporting that. So currently we're putting our plans to get her to do 150 patient phase two trial in Canada later this year. So we believe that the treatment of COVID and attacking this virus, it requires a cocktail of weapons. You know, if you're well direct attack, like REM that's severe, the famous Galia drug, and also indirect attack, like our drug, uh, we choose, uh, immunomodulator later, either enhance it, your immune system to fight this. And this was shown very effectively in this study that was done in 77 patients that showed the ones that took inhalation form of interferon. They recovered much faster, they didn't need oxygen or ventilators. So our plan now, you know what we're happy with, you know, we're, we're, we're proud Canadian company to put this together, going forward for the next three to six months to get this drug through the clinical phase two trials, and then, uh, go with, uh, with an emergency use authorization, uh, from FDA and health Canada to take it to the next step and hopefully make an impact in the lives of patients,

Speaker 2: 7:01

How early, um, I mean, I know the earlier the better, right, but is there an ideal, I guess, use time in the first couple of weeks or,

Speaker 1: 7:13

Yeah. So as soon as you're tested positive, as soon as you testified or you see symptoms like coughing and fever, this, this, uh, um, could be, this product could be used. That's how we're positioning it. Yeah. We're, we're also seeing, we're also doing, uh, a lower dose format of the same drug for prevention. For example, if you know, a pandemic is coming, your frontline healthcare workers, you don't have the virus, but you're exposed to it like hospital workers, school buses, waiters, you know, everybody who is, who comes across with the public and wants to be protected. So the lower dose format would help enhance that immune system to fight this thing. So we think both are needed, but obviously the primary focus is for the treatment as soon as possible to get the higher dose format out. Hopefully later this year on their emergency use authorization into patients.

Speaker 2: 8:16

What's a, what is the emergency use authorization? Is that a bypass for

Speaker 1: 8:22

This bypasses, the usual, uh, regulatory approval process that FDA and health Canada and other regulatory agencies look at. Cause you have to have a set of preclinical phase one phase two phase three and so on, but in the, in the, uh, situations like this, uh, is there a pandemic and a global need for this? If there is enough sufficient data and the, the, the trial data is statistically powered enough, uh, the regulators give you emergency use authorization for that period of time is not infinite and that can be taken away. So for that time, for example, we want to contain this pandemic in city of Toronto or other, um, uh, areas and you get to use this. And then while you set up your phase three program for eventual commercialization on the regular, uh, format,

Speaker 2: 9:23

Well, this would definitely lead to a better life. So let's look, let's backtrack about, um, a year ago or even six months ago, where, where was better life headed, where was

Speaker 1: 9:43

Better life has always been, and well, it started as an R and D company to, to, to have better delivery system for cannabinoids and cannabis products, for example, a topical or oral that can be dosed properly for people who are not necessarily cannabis users, but they will go to, you know, shopper's drug Mart and buy cream to alleviate their pain in their joints and so on. So, uh, it started about two years ago by licensing and delivery system from Altam my, the private company that I spoke to you about for specifically just cannabinoid. So it's always been an R and D company for so far, two years leading to beginning of this year. It did a lot of product formulation development testing with, uh, with, uh, researchers in Israel, in Germany to develop these days. And the premise was to be a pharma grade type product consumer products that was developed, not just, you know, by putting stuff together, but actual data and pharma people, because we saw the cannabis space. We didn't get a lot of, uh, you know, LPs and grow ups and things like that. And then physicians that were using it, but the pharma pharma, uh, type development was missing. So that's how the, a better life, uh, it came together. And now with the merger of the two, we have obviously more, uh, enhanced programs, but COVID takes precedent over everything else, as you can, you can imagine

Speaker 2: 11:28

Definitely for our investors, uh, who are either currently with you or who you may want to, uh, who may want to invest, right. What is your differentiator right now between you and other companies that are working on a potential, um, solution for covert and their delivery mechanisms? A that's a great question

Speaker 1: 11:54

Specifically, because we were working on interferon alpha to be topical format against another virus, which was, is the HPV. We've had a lot of experience with internal Pharaoh alpha to be. And this, this compound as been really, it was used, uh, has been used for last 40 years. It's been on the market for a long time, eh, and was used again, hepatitis C virus in, in, in humans and marketed under Toronto by America. You have this continue, knew the production of this. We have a lot of expense. So with how you use this, uh, interferon for TV, and we are standing out as the only group on the planet, wanting to advance and create a new way of manufacturing, this product, uh, that was basically discontinued. Anyway, it's a biologic, it's a very hard thing to make 166 amino acids long, and the way it was made all the time, all this time was really an old technology going back 30, 40 years. So we have developed a new technology. It's a cloning technology that creates their only pure what we call ISO form free form they're federal for, to be, it was done with collaboration, with the NRC in Canada, nationally, such council, uh, later, uh, late last year earlier this year, and we have a patent pending process. You have to create the only pure, uh, interferon alpha to be. And we have, we are now taking that drug substance through its process to scale it up again, lots of technology is going into this, uh, to be the only group that can do this. And one of the biggest things issues with interferon therapy is side effects. So these impurities called side effects. So what differentiates us is that we will be the only group that has this process to create the purest form of interferon for two weeks, which is known to be a potent antiviral agent. It has shown in limited clinical setting in wool hand, and with cranium researches to be effective against[inaudible] and its mechanism of action against the virus and viral activity as well. No, it goes back many, many, uh, you know, a few decades. So we think that regardless of vaccination and other treatments in a federal role for, to be, will always be part of the arsenal of products you need to, to attack this virus. So it's like the best analogy is really HIV, right after 30, 40 years, we don't have a vaccine for HIV, but no one really dies. We don't have a pandemic of HIV, you know, people, people dying of this because there's a cocktail of treatments that as soon as you're diagnosed, he keeps you alive and he limits the virus application and makes you a healthier, I mean, there are people are living with HIV now, uh, for a long time. So we think this will happen eventually with Corvette or variations of it is that interferon alpha to be, which we will have the premium product will have the best chance of containing. And while other treatments are coming to attack the virus,

Speaker 2: 15:36

No, we've spoken with more than a few companies who are all working and we thank them for their, um, for their service. Um, we're working on solutions. Uh, you're one of the only ones who have said, we're not trying to cure it. We're not trying to eradicate it. We're trying to treat it while in the process of, um, working on a cure. And that's, uh, that that's really something that as well, the cocktail, the cocktail approach is, um, you're right. You know, we compare to HIV and we've seen the way it was 20 years ago and the way it is now, 20, 30 years ago, and the way that it is now, it's, it's a completely different story. Um, and I, you know, I hope, yeah, I hope something, something changes and, uh, yeah, we just wish you continued success. Um, now let's, let's, let's talk a little bit about the future. No, let's go back. Sorry. Uh, the team, the team that you are working with, tell us, tell us a little bit about your squad.

Speaker 1: 16:50

The team, uh, is, uh, highly experienced, uh, average of, uh, 20 to 30 years experience in this field of drug development, uh, from operations to CMC, which is drug substance, uh, production to clinical, our chief medical officer, uh, and we are about seven or eight, seven people managing about 41 different groups, service providers, uh, from, uh, biologics manufacturers to fermentation specialists, to regulatory experts for FDA biostatistics session. It takes a lot of, it takes a village and a half, if you will to do. And it's something like that. So, uh, it's, it's really a most efficient way to conduct these because they are experts in area that are so focused. And for us to recreate that as a small company makes no sense as they will take. So we have from the NRC group that started with the cloning of the equalizer to people in Colorado or our CMC group, uh, and our chief medical officer in Texas, our operations people in Toronto and everybody in between, we have a great diverse group that are very, very experienced in what they are doing. So dr. Angela Ogden is our chief medical officer she's based in Texas close to MD Anderson and the cancer center, highly experienced person, a man, a stretch brother, and is in Toronto, he's a operations, uh, COO from, um, from Roche and Johnson and Johnson background. And, uh, uh, God bless him. Scott Drudge in Colorado, he's at high level or CMC. He was very critical in putting the production of interferon the way we are doing it and quarterbacking that with various groups that we have worked with from Fujifilm and UK and, and NRC, and, uh, now group in Massachusetts, putting us together in a, you know, fatal finished format vial that we can actually put in a nebulizer. Uh, so we have a great team of highly experienced. Uh, and I think I couldn't have asked for a better group of people, especially when we came across this, uh, awful pandemic. We thought everything else is going to come to a stop, which it did and other programs to get it off the ground. Usually this stuff takes two, three years, you know, but you had to really step up your game, uh, to, to get this off the ground. So I'm very happy with the team and, and how they've put, put this together.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Well, you've definitely shown me the entrepreneurial spirit in, uh, in your ability to pivot, uh, so quickly and so readily, um, to, like you said, step up to the, to the global plate, uh, clinical trials phase two, I believe you said would happen later this year. Um, what does that mean for, for an investor, for somebody who is

Speaker 1: 20:08

Really, usually there's a critical, uh, part of taking a proof of concept to the next stage that shows that commercial viability of a product. Because at that time you've kind of addressed the safety issues. You've addressed the, the drug substance issues and things like that. So if you look at the way you can model these things for an investor and, and creating value at every step, you're reducing the risk. So, you know, when you're in a molecule with a path in a university, you have 2% chance of success, but when you get to phase two and with a drug, that's already with

Speaker 2: 20:48

Another indication, so we're not creating something completely out of the blue, you get, you know, more than 60, 70, 80% chance of success, the way we're doing it. And some, some previous work that has been done, but it ain't as creates a great, uh, uh, you know, vehicle for investors to hopefully gain, uh, gain a lot from this going forward while we definitely wish you continued success. Our thoughts are going to be positive towards you and your team. Um, if you're looking for this, excuse me, I had other interviews. If you can please visit CSC underscore TV on YouTube, you can check us out on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, as well as www dot[inaudible] dot com. If you're looking for the stock, the better life, it is B E T are trading on the Canadian securities exchange. I've been your host bear to Miller, and this has been an edition of hashtag finance.

Speaker 3: 21:53

It's James here reminding you that if you just enjoyed this episode of hashtag finance, there's a lot more, make sure you subscribe to this show available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google podcast shows coming out at least twice a week. So please do not miss out. Also, if you're on Instagram, please, don't forget to follow us at Canadian exchange. That's all one word Canadian exchange. We're hosting live daily content with great guests, discussing the capital markets, entrepreneurship, investing, and much more, and finally feel like video. Please subscribe to CSE space TV, that CSC space TV on YouTube. You can find more great stuff, including exclusive series content like cannabis month, 2020, and our new series investing in psychedelics as always. Thank you for listening.

The Exchange for Entrepreneurs™ Podcast

Dr. Ahmad Doroudian on the Potential of a COVID-19 Treatment | #HashtagFinance

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