Global biotech delegation in Israel next week
The major investment houses will seek Israeli opportunities, while the large biotechnology companies will examine possibilities for cooperation.
Batya Feldman 23 Jun 05 19:36
A delegation comprising some of the most senior figures in the global biotechnology industry and financiers in the field will visit Israel next week.
Among the delegation's members will be Harlan Weissman, who is executive vice president, research and development at Johnson & Johnson; James Boylan, director of medical investment at Merrill Lynch; Marina Bozilenko, a senior managing director in the Investment Banking Division of Bear Stearns; acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Lester M. Crawford; James Henderson, manager of the health group at HSBC; Michael Vasinkevich, a principal and senior managing director at Rodman & Renshaw; Citigroup Health Care Group managing director Mark Simon; and senior representatives of the specialist venture capital firms OrbiMed, Polaris, Prospect, and others.
Irwin Katsof of Global Capital Associates, which is organizing the delegation, said yesterday that the that its aim was to enable senior people to meet Israeli biotechnology companies. The investment houses represented on the delegation seek to examine investments in Israeli companies, while the large biotechnology companies want to examine the possibilities for cooperation with the Israeli companies.
Katsof, who was formerly former executive director of The Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, an organization that promotes awareness of Judaism around the world, has considerable experience in organizing business delegations to Israel. AOL's large investment in Shopping.com a few years ago resulted from a meeting Katsof arranged between an Israeli group and US investors.
From his office in Times Square in New York, Katsof said, "Global Capital operates globally - in New York, Washington, Israel, and Moscow. As a business, we want to build partnerships between Israel and American companies. Last May, a smaller delegation visited Israel, following which Vision Science received a $10 million PIPE (private investment in public equity) investment from Rodman Renshaw. This time, the delegation is larger, with representation from senior levels in the industry."
Katsof said a high-tech delegation with a similar make-up would visit in September, with senior representatives from Warner Brothers, Applied Materials, Nextel, Deutsche Bank, IBM, and other companies. Two further delegations, in the areas of medical devices and defense, are planned.
Members of the delegation will meet with representatives of companies and local venture capital funds, including Atox Bio, Cell-Cure, Compugen, CorAssist, Cardiovascular, CureTech, Gamida-Cell, Glucon Medical, HealOr, Kamada, MonaLiza Medical, Nanopharma, NeuroTrax, ObeCure, OrSense, Pharmos, Procognia, Proneuron Biotechnologies, Protalix Biotherapeutics, QuantomiX, Rad-BioMed Incubator, Sol-Gel Technologies, SuperDimension, Syneron Medical, UltraShape, and Vecta.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Thursday, June 23, 2005
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