Israel Active

Israel’s Teva has launched ALYQ - a generic form of Adcirca, to reduce the symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Between 1995 and 2016, cancer deaths for Israeli Jewish men dropped by an average of 1.7% every year and for Israeli Jewish women by 1.6%. Cancer deaths for Israeli Arabs also dropped significantly. Although Israel has the 50th highest cancer rate in the world, it is 92nd for cancer deaths.

Israel’s Beilinson Hospital has implemented a new program that locates matching donors for kidney transplant patients who suffer from high levels of antibodies due to previous transplants or blood donations. It has already helped the hospital perform successful transplants for 39 patients.

Dr. Itay Tokatly-Latzer and his Tel Aviv University research team have linked adolescents and young adults with celiac disease (CD) to higher incidences of disordered eating behavior. Many CD patients exhibit excessive control over their food.

The Assuta chain of medical clinics and private hospitals, controlled by Israel’s Maccabi Health Services, has founded a venture capital fund for investing in medical devices in the later stages of development. It has already raised $35 million and plans to reach $150 million by mid-2019.

Israeli biotech Immunovative Therapies purifies and cultures healthy T-cells from an unmatched donor. The cells (called AlloStim) are injected into the cancer patient and after several treatments, boosts the recipient’s immune system to kill the tumors. Phase 2/3 trials in progress.

Young burns victims at the I-PEARLS pediatric center at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center receive treatment from Israeli-developed lasers. They include carbon dioxide (CO2) ablative lasers to safely and effectively reduce the devastating impact of scars in burned children.

Israeli biotech Kitov has proved its NT219 anti-cancer treatment triggers irreversible shutdown of tumor survival pathways in multiple cancers. In a separate announcement, US biotech Coeptis will distribute Consensi - Kitov’s dual osteoarthritis pain and hypertension treatment in the US.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have discovered 27 new molecules that could treat fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetic nephrotoxicity, and to heal wounds. They devised an algorithm to search a database of 1.56 million molecules for those with therapeutic potential.

I reported previously on Israel’s TytoCare and its digital stethoscope that diagnoses a patient and sends the data electronically to a remote physician.  TytoCare has now received European and Canadian approval to match its US approval and plans to expand in Europe and Asia.