Hadasit Newsletter – January 2021

Over the last year, Hadasit joined the medical community’s enormous global effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic. We are pleased to share our recent successes and proud to see that Hadassah innovations are contributing to the effort to contain and even cure COVID-19.

Enlivex Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ENLV) reported positive interim results of a Phase II clinical trial for Allocetra, which stops the immune system from running out of control. The interim clinical results relate to eight COVID-19 patients who were treated with Allocetra, six of whom were in severe condition and two of whom were in critical condition. Seven completely recovered and were discharged from the hospital, an average of 4.7 days following Allocetra administration. The eighth patient experienced clinical improvement following treatment and was classified as moderate/severe condition. The company says that Allocetra has been well-tolerated with no treatment-related serious adverse events.

Prof. Dror Mevorach, Chairman of Medicine and Director of the Rheumatology Research Centre of Hadassah, is the founder and chief scientific and medical officer of Enlivex.

Tera Novel and Hadassah have developed an anti-COVID-19 facemask using a biological warfare disinfectant found to be 100% effective in protecting wearers from the virus. The technology, known as “GERMS OVER,” has a global patent. The innovative antiseptic disinfectant was originally developed for the IDF to deal with biological warfare. During the pandemic, Hadassah promoted the technology to develop a mask that could be used by doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus. The masks are now available to the public so that they too can be protected against COVID-19.

In October, the Hadassah Accelerator opened its third class, pairing five new companies with Hadassah clinicians. The program is supported by the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) and CBG (Consensus Business Group), one of the UK’s leading family offices, with a net asset value of over £1 billion. Hadasit is working closely with the start-ups, clinicians and IBM experts in order to bring their technologies to market.

We warmly welcome:

• CYBERMED AI – developing cyber solutions for imaging devices, teaming with Prof. Jacob (Koby) Sosna
• Olive Diagnostics – developing a urine analysis system for home use, teaming with Prof. Abd Rauf Higazi
• BAIBYS – developing a sperm selection device and algorithm for IVF, teaming with Dr. Assaf Ben Meir
• LiteBC – developing a non-invasive blood analyzing device and beginning clinical trials with Dr. Dean Nachman and Dr. Ram Gelman (the PI)
• Biomarkerz – developing algorithms for monitoring post-partum depression, teaming with Dr. Inbal Reuveni

BioDesign is a biomedical innovation program of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in collaboration with Hadassah Medical Center. Two startup companies were established this year, based on ideas and projects initiated during the course.

BrainWatch Tech was established as part of the eHealth Ventures incubator, with an initial investment of NIS 3 million. The company is developing a system for monitoring comatose patients’ pupils through closed eyelids. The original project was conceived during the BioDesign program, by a group led by Prof. Jose Cohen and Dr. Vladimir Goldman. Before raising the investment, the project received an Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) grant and proved clinical feasibility on 40 volunteers in a trial at Hadassah.

Swift Duct is another BioDesign-initiated startup that is developing a navigation tool for safer endoscopic retrograde cholangial-pancreatography (ERCP) procedures. The tool minimizes the risk of pancreatitis caused by erroneously inserting a catheter into the pancreatic duct instead of the common bile duct (CBD). MEDX incubator, which is partly owned by Boston Scientific, provided the seed investment of NIS 2.5 million. Dr. Yevgeni Plotkin, an anesthesiologist at Hadassah Medical Center, is part of Swift Duct’s founding team and the company has also hired Hadassah senior gastroenterologist Dr. Harold Jacob as a consultant.

Hadasit webinars bring together industry partners, investors, entrepreneurs and researchers to share ideas and insights.

Held in September 2020, the webinar Can AI Work in Healthcare? featured Dr. David Gruen, who shared lessons learned from IBM Watson’s journey, and Elad Wallach, who provided insight into acceptance of AIDOC’s AI in radiology. Moran Snir of Clear Genetics described the lightspeed three-year journey from idea to exit, and Boaz Buchandler spoke about POMICELL’s approach and challenges in AI prediction models for treatment success.

Two additional webinars entitled How Does a VC Evaluate Investments?  featured successful health-tech entrepreneur Eyal Lifschitz, partner and co-founder of Peregrine Ventures. Eyal discussed how he evaluates projects with cardiology and neurosurgery wards at Hadassah and shared advice about how to avoid common obstacles, including choosing partners.

Hadassah departments that are interested in hearing Eyal or similar talks are welcome to contact:

Ariel Rabin, VP BD, HealthTech
Email: arielr1@hadassah.org.il
Tel.: 050-5172407

Or:

Tal Almog, VP, Business Development, Pharma & Diagnostics at Hadasit
Email: talal@hadassah.org.il
Tel.: 054-3187538