The International Health-Tech Pilot Program promotes forward-looking healthcare solutions from Israel. Now, the first collaboration agreements between Israeli start-up companies, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and the Israel Innovation Authority have been successfully concluded. The collaboration of the start-ups with their clinical partners will start in early 2022. The Authority is already planning a second call for proposals to support international collaboration projects in the field of medical translation.
The International Health-Tech Pilot Program results from a cooperation agreement signed in September 2019 between Charité, BIH and the Israel Innovation Authority. The partnership is an outcome of the longstanding collaboration between the Charité, the BIH, and the Israeli Economic and Trade mission office (a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry) at the Israeli embassy in Berlin. It aims to make medical innovations and new technologies available more quickly for global patient care through international collaboration. Selected start-ups will receive financial support from the Authority as well as access to resources or expertise of a selected clinical project partner. In addition to Charité and BIH, Israeli start-ups will also have access to their medical partner’s institutions in the United States. Coordinating the program on behalf of Charité and BIH, is Dr. med. Sein Schmidt, Scientific and Medical Director – Clinical Trial Unit, in Charité and BIH Clinical Study Center (CSC).
“The program establishes cooperations between excellent clinicians and scientists from Charité, BIH and Israeli companies. We are excited about collaborating with one of the world’s leading countries in terms of innovation and start-up culture,” said Sein Schmidt on the occasion of the project launch.
“This program is yet another great example of the complementary economic cooperation between the two contries: on the one hand, the innovative Israeli solutions from numerous verticals within the Health sector and on the other hand, a great and leading german health institution. Through this project both sides can lead us all to a better future”, said Ester Elias, the head ot the Israeli Economic & trade mission in Berlin.
“The collaboration between the Israel Innovation Authority, Charité and the BIH created a great opportunity for Israeli companies to partner with one of the most prestigious health institutions in Europe. We congratulate the four collaboration projects that are currently on their way to implementation, as they carry great promise to improve future patient care in both countries and world-wide”, said Dr. Ami Appelbaum, Chairman, Israel Innovation Authority. He further added, “We invite additional companies to submit their innovative solutions to the next call for proposals and look forward to increasing this collaboration that will help reshape the future of the global health sector.”
In the course of the first call for proposals, more than 70 Israeli companies applied to collaborate with Charité and BIH demonstrating Israel’s immense innovative power. After reviewing the submitted projects, 25 of these companies were brought together with Charité clinicians to discuss possible options for collaboration. Now, four start-ups from Israel will be funded and have the opportunity to test, validate and/or further develop their medical innovations in clinical trials performed at the Clinical Study Center of Charité and BIH in Berlin:
- NUVO Inc. – Study on remote monitoring in pregnancy care, supervised by Prof. Dr. Stefan Verlohren Senior physician at the Department of Obstetrics at Charité
- PixCell Medical – Study on rapid complete blood count testing diagnostics (point of care), supervised by Prof. Dr.Lars Bullinger and Prof. Dr. Anne Flörcken at the Department of Hematology, Oncology and Cancer Immunology at Charité CVK
- HT Bioimaging – further development of a medical imaging platform technology to early detect and classify cancer at the point of care, supervised by Dr. Veit Hofmann at the Department of Otolaryngology at Charité CBF
- AlphaTau– further development of a new radiation therapy for the treatment of solid tumors, supervised by Prof. Dr. Thomas Eigentler at the Skin Tumor Center at the Clinic for Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology of Charité
Professor Christopher Baum, Chairman of the BIH Board of Directors and Head of Translational Research at Charité, emphasizes: “The signed partnerships between Charité, BIH, the Authority and the four Israeli companies mentioned above represent a significant milestone in the pilot program, which paves the way for Israeli companies to further evolve their future-oriented medical ideas. At the same time, the selected projects hold the potential to sustainably improve medical care for patients. This is another great opportunity to put our mission of “Turning Research into Health” into action.”
The IIA is planning a second call for proposals within the International Health-Tech Pilot Program in 2022.
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