Israel Active

Israel’s Habitu develops a platform specifically targeting clinical trials and patient support programs in community-based healthcare. It provides flexible, continuous, emotional, professional and procedural support to patients, leading to more efficient trials and lower drop-out rates.

Israel’s Endospan (reported previously) has been granted Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. FDA for its NEXUS Aortic Arch Stent Graft System.  It already has the CE Mark of European approval.

Israel’s Immunai is developing a technological platform that aims to map the entire immune system for better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. It uses single cell genomics that could in the future unlock the secrets of infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

The Israeli Chief Medical Officer of US biotech Moderna reported that company’s mRNA-1273 Covid-19 vaccine successfully produced antibodies on 8 patients. Dr. Tal Zaks received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Ben Gurion University, joining Moderna in 2015.

Seven of the eight critically ill coronavirus patients on ventilators, treated with PLX stem cells from Israel’s Pluristem, survived after 28 days.  Only one of those still needed mechanical ventilation - the other five having been discharged from hospital. 10 further patients have now begun treatment.

The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) in Ness Ziona has just completed the patent application process for eight new coronavirus antibodies (reported previously).

Israel’s Teva is donating the medicines for a US study into the effectiveness of a potential combination coronavirus treatment. The study will evaluate whether combining the antibiotic azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine can prevent hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19.

While developing its unique treatment for growing human bone grafts, Israel’s Bonus BioGroup discovered MesenCure - a new pneumonia treatment that could help coronavirus patients. A study on animals was successful; human trials are planned.

Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have partnered with Swiss biotech Neovii to find a vaccine against Covid-19. TAU will use their 2015 patented research into the MERS virus to accelerate their work on Covid-19.

Israel’s Zebra Medical has just received its fifth FDA approval - this time for its Vertebral Compression Fractures (VCF) image analysis product. Zebra’s latest AI solution automatically identifies likely compression fractures from scans.