Israel Active

The US FDA has approved the QLOSI eye drops, from Israel’s Orasis (see previously), The prescription eye drops improve farsightedness (presbyopia) for up to eight hours without impacting distance or night vision. The treatment can benefit almost two billion sufferers.

Israel’s Teva is partnering with France’s Sanofi (see also ) to develop and commercialize TEV 574, currently in Phase 2b clinical trials, for the anti-TL1A treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease, two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Israel’s Beilinson Hospital has completed a study of coronary artery calcium (CAC) levels using the HealthCCSng system from Israel’s Nanox.AI (see previously) to review routine CT-scans. High CAC patients were referred to clinics for in-depth evaluation and treatment.

A team led by Weizmann scientists has discovered that the protein PSME4 is produced by cancer cells to stop the immune system from attacking the tumor. Reducing PSME4 levels should potentially render tumors more vulnerable to immunotherapy.

Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have engineered an RNA molecule that repairs a damaged ubiquitin-proteasome system – a possible cause of Alzheimer’s disease. A faulty ubiquitin system leads to the accumulation of toxic proteins and amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's patients.

Opaganib, a novel, twice-daily, oral medication developed by Israel’s RedHill Biopharma (see previously) delivered a statistically significant increase in survival time in a United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in vivo Ebola virus study

Israel’s Belong.Life (see previously) has launched a chatbot “Tara” - a conversational AI cancer clinical trial matching platform. It records cancer type, mutation, diagnosis, treatment history, and can even scan medical files. Belong.Life also has platforms for IBD, MS, and Psoriasis.

A male striped hyena was certainly not a laughing hyena when it was caught in an illegal snare. Veterinarians at Israel’s Wildlife Hospital in Ramat Gan saved the animal’s life, treating its infected foot and dislocated toes.   They also made skin flaps to cover the injuries.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Both scientists previously won Israel’s Technion Harvey Prize in Human Health.

Some 18 months ago, senior MDA medic Meir Shalev rushed on his motorcycle to save 4-year-old Ofri. Just three weeks ago, Meir was called out again to the same address where Ofri was having an acute allergy attack. Meir used an EpiPen to save Ofri’s life.