Israel Active

Professor Dror Harats, CEO of VBL Therapeutics on ILTV News described the Phase 2 results of VB-111. The treatment (now in Phase 3 trials) doubles survival time for brain tumor patients and ovarian cancer patients.  It works for most solid tumor cancers.

Professor Asher Bashiri of Israel’s Soroka University Medical Center led the 2017 World Congress on Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, held in Cannes, France. Doctors representing over 50 countries attended.

I reported previously about Israel’s PolyPid slow-release antibiotic bone implants.  PolyPid has just been accepted into the US FDA Qualified Infectious Disease Program - a new FDA status for innovative products in the treatment of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

Israel’s Teva and Philips Healthcare selected 9 from 750 startups for their Sanara joint Israeli medical incubator.  They include MeWay (nebulizer) Myhomedoc (smartphone checkup and diagnosis), BReathme (asthma management), Purecare (gum treatment), Lensfree (lowers CT radiation), Lifegraph (migraine prevention), Lidus (blood vessel suturing) and SpirCare (lung capacity measurement).

Israel’s BiolineRx is buying UK’s Agalimmune,for $6 million. The private UK-based company has developed an innovative, anti-cancer immunotherapy platform. treatment that not only kills the tumor cells at the site of injection, but also brings about a durable, follow-on, anti-metastatic immune response.

I reported previously about Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld of Israel’s Sheba Hospital. He has now founded startup TPCera which found that parasitic Helminth worms excrete a substance that stops the immune system attacking it.  It can be used to treat auto-immune diseases.

Israeli biotech Biondvax is to receive a Government grant for 20% of the NIS 20 million required to build a Jerusalem factory for commercial scale production of its M-001 Universal Flu vaccine.  Biondvax plans to produce tens of millions of doses of M-001 annually, including for Phase 3 trials.

I reported previously on the ApoGraft fast system for collecting stem cells, developed by Israel’s Cellect. A patient dying from leukemia has just received the first transplant using these cells. Cellect (and much of the medical world) are closely monitoring results.

Thanks to Israeli health charity Ezer Mizion, an Israeli infant with immunodeficiency syndrome SCID no longer needs to live in a bacteria-free “bubble”.  A DNA match was found on Ezer Mizion’s bone marrow database and a transplant has transformed the little boy’s life.

Israel’s United Hatzalah volunteer emergency response service has a trauma and crisis response unit. The Psycho-trauma Unit’s latest recruit is a dog named Lucy. Therapy dogs have proven to be very helpful in traumatic situations, especially when dealing with children and the elderly.