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Rebekah Mercer

Israeli Biotech Companies Are Preparing for Commercialization!


As addressed in many of our past articles such as, “Israeli Biotech Company Collaborates with U.S. Agritech Giant” and “Texas and Israel: Both “Lone Star” States in the Fight Against Skin Cancer,” Texas and Israel both economically overlap in the areas of biotechnology and biomedicine and can mutually benefit from more collaboration in these two areas.

One particular example of Israeli success in biotechnology is in the recent $1.1 billion purchase of Israeli drugmaker Neuroderm to Japanese pharma giant Mitsubishi Tanabe last month. As the Times of Israel elaborated in a recent article, this groundbreaking transaction marks the largest purchase ever of an Israeli healthcare company and sets an encouraging example for Israeli biotech companies that are planning to embark on commercialization soon!

Anya Eldan, VP of the Israel Innovation Authority’s Startup Division emphasized the importance of Mitsubishi’s Israeli acquisition: “We don’t see this kind of valuation often for a biotech company; it is more typical of an internet company. It shows big support for the Israeli biotech industry.”

In general, biotechnology is a very difficult industry in that it requires great financial investment and patience as such technologies are only able to be perfected through multiple tests of trial and error. Despite these drawbacks, according to the IATI (Israel Advanced Technology Industries) Israeli Life Science Industry 2017 Report, “the life sciences sector attracted in 2016 funding of $823 million, which represents 20% of the total investments in Israeli high-tech.”

This greater amount of investment in Israeli life sciences is reflected in the success of biotech development in other Israeli firms such as BiondVax, Gamida Cell, Vascular Biogenics LTD. and RedHill Biopharma LTD which also plan to commercialize soon!

As Texas is a state that houses some of the best medical research centers in the world such as the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio and the Texas Medical Center in Houston, both “Lone Star” states should collaborate in this area. In doing so,Texas and Israel biotech companies will be able to help their respective biotech products to succeed commercially and aid potential ones to receive the necessary investments for further development.

Sources:

  • Article: Coming of Age, Israel Biotech Sector Gets Ready for Market & source for quote #1: http://www.timesofisrael.com/coming-of-age-israel-biotech-sector-gets-ready-for-market/

  • IATI Israeli Life Science Industry 2017 Report (source for quote #2): http://www.iati.co.il/files/files/2017%20IATI%20Israeli%20Life%20Sciences%20Industry.pdf


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