Prof. Raphael Bayar: Israel is a world power in the development of medical devices in the cardiovascular field

Prof. Biar said these things at the opening of the annual cardiology conference ICI 2011 today in Tel Aviv

Israel is a world power, by any measure, in the development of medical devices in the cardiovascular field, said this morning (Sunday, December 4, 2012), Prof. Raphael Biar, director of the Rambam Hospital and co-chairman of the annual ICI cardiology conference 2011 with the opening of the conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv.
"According to the data of the Israeli Life Sciences Industries Association for 2011, Israel maintains its position as a power in the field of medical innovation in general and in the cardiovascular field in particular," says Prof. Biar. "According to the data, 56% of the Israeli life sciences industry is devoted to the development of medical devices, 20% to biotechnology and 12% to the development of drugs. The medical device companies mainly deal with implants and consumable devices (49%), such as stents and implanted heart valves and methods for opening arteries in the human body" .

"In Israel there are currently 212 companies engaged in innovative developments in the field of medical devices, with the cardiovascular field dominating the dome of innovation with 82 companies exclusively engaged in this field," says Prof. Biar. "Israel is a world leader in the medical industry and is considered to be a tremendous breeding ground for medical development in the future. If you compare Israel to Silicon Valley, it has more or less the same number of residents, but also the same number of companies in the field of life sciences. Israel invents and develops innovative medical equipment at the highest level , with one minor difference: Silicon Valley is based on a budget 20 times larger than that of the Israeli companies." According to Professor Biar, "The combination between academia, industry and hospitals is the secret key to progress in the field. The medical equipment industry in the world is worth 200 billion dollars, half of which is used in the USA." 35% of this amount goes to the cardiovascular field."

Prof. Biar also points out that according to data from the Export Institute, the export of medical equipment from Israel in 2010 amounted to about 1.5 billion dollars, an increase of about 9% compared to last year. In 2011, an additional increase of 15% was recorded in the export turnover from January to September compared to the corresponding period last year, and it amounts to 1.2 billion dollars.

The international conference ICI Meeting 2011, which deals with innovations in the field of interventional cardiology, is being held at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, between December 4-6, 2011. More than 1000 guests from Israel and abroad, among them doctors and medical teams dealing in interventional cardiology, doctors from the various fields of medicine related to this field, such as radiologists and electrophysiologists, scientists and researchers Those who want to receive an update on the current state of the field and what the future will look like, senior representatives representing the leading companies in the field as well as entities interested in technologies in this field, the giant companies in the field. The start-up companies from Israel and the world in various stages of product development, leading financing companies and financing bodies will participate in special sessions aimed at discussing how united forces produce an added value for the industry in this field.

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