An Israeli medical startup claimed on Thursday that it has developed a plant-based COVID-19 treatment that can stop the attachment of COVID-19 – including the now-predominant Omicron variant – onto human cells.
Novel Concepts said that it was welcoming emergency testing requests from a number of countries. One researcher from Tel Aviv University has in the past cast doubt on the company's claims.
While the company said that its new treatment stopped COVID-19’s progress into human cells and led to negative PCR tests within 48 hours, it said that patients also recovered from long-COVID symptoms – such as memory loss, loss of taste and smell, headaches, fatigue – that have plagued victims of COVID-19 and befuddled researchers and scientists.
The company's findings can be viewed on its website - www.NovelConceptsMedical.com
The treatment, which is made of natural compounds that are all approved individually for other uses, can be stored at room temperature, making it easier to transport than existing treatments – such as Pfizer vaccines, which must be stored at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Our cure can stop Omicron, the COVID-19 virus, and long COVID-19 symptoms. We can help reduce the high numbers of people catching COVID-19 every week,” said founder and inventor Dr. Rachel Alkalay. “We can also help provide emergency assistance to those countries that have low vaccination rates. Our plant-based cure is safe and without any known side effects.”
The press release on the research did not name which specific natural compounds were included in the formula. Alkalay has said in the past that she could not share specifics due to the pending patent.
Testing on the new treatment was conducted across two laboratories in Canada and in Israel: The Center for Microbial Chemical Biology at the Michael G. DeGroot Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and the Smart Assays Lab in the Weizmann Science Park in Israel.
Novel Concepts plans to hold an IPO (Initial Public Offering) on the stock market sometime in 2022 amid the success of its new treatment.