Israel Active

AstraZeneca and Hadasit, the commercial arm and technology transfer company of Israel’s Hadassah University Hospitals have agreed to identify, evaluate, and jointly develop new treatments for several diseases, primarily focused on cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes.

Doctors can now prescribe cheaper alternatives for heart patients using Adenoscan and sufferers of primary hyperlipidemia and mixed dyslipidemia previously using Niaspan.

Back in June 2011 I reported on BreathID from Israel’s Exalenz, which tests for H. pylori. The bacterium causes peptic ulcers and gastric inflammation, and is associated with stomach cancer. Today, BreathID is used in 220 US centers, producing results in 10 minutes instead of 3 days for blood tests.

The Ramat Gan Wildlife hospital treats over 2000 animals every year, including snakes, weasels, deer, hyenas, crows, pigeons or baby hedgehogs. On one day 170 wild creatures were having treatment. Many injured birds arrive, as Israel is on a major migratory route.

A rap music video produced by Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem has gone “viral”. It features the hospital’s doctors and nurses dancing and singing the virtues of anti-bacterial hand gel. The Hebrew video, uploaded on September 21, has already been seen over 128,000 times.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Weizmann scientists have discovered removing the protein MBD3 from cells reprograms them into stem cells within 8 days instead of the current 4 weeks. Stem cells have the potential to become any cell in the body and are able to regenerate damaged tissue and organs.

Speakers at Jerusalem’s 5th International Stem Cell conference in October include 22 Israeli professors and six Israeli specialist doctors. Oh yes, and there will also be eight international professors speaking.

In June I highlighted Integrity Application’s GlucoTrack that takes readings from your earlobe. Now I’ve come across Cnoga’s TensorTip Combo Glucometer which measures the effect of infrared light passing through a finger. Diabetics now have a choice of Israeli devices.

Cancer Research UK’s technology development arm, and Teva Pharmaceuticals have signed a multi-project alliance agreement to research and develop first-in-class cancer drugs that modulate DNA damage and repair response (DDR) processes in cancer cells. The US FDA also approved two of Teva’s cancer medications - for secondary cancers and for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Trials of Deep TMS treatment by Israel’s Brainsway at Sheba Medical Center have shown a 27 percent improvement in patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. These were OCD patients that had previously failed to respond to both pharmacological and psychological therapy.