VALTECH company heats incentive in Ariel is the winner of the national competition for entrepreneurs in the Israeli biomed industry

During the ILSI-Biomed Israel 2007 week, the winners of the national competition for entrepreneurs, organized by Red Biomed Incubator, were announced. The goal: encouraging the transformation of scientific research into a profitable biomedical industry. The winning entrepreneurs won a prize package valued at about 70 thousand dollars

On the left, Dr. Idan Tamir, CEO of Red Biomed, and on the right, Amir Gross, entrepreneur and CEO of Valtech, winner of the outstanding project award. Photographer credit: Israel from Lebanon.

VALTECH Incentive Greenhouse in Ariel is the winner of the Red Biomed Greenhouse's outstanding project competition for the year 2006-2007. The announcement took place in a festive ceremony held as part of the events of the sixth annual conference of the Israeli life sciences industry ILSI-Biomed Israel 2007, at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. This year the competition was open to all greenhouse companies in Israel. The Valtech project, by the entrepreneur Amir Gross, which deals with the development of a medical device that will be a breakthrough in the repair of valves in the catheterization procedure, was chosen due to its innovation, originality and the inherent market potential.

11 projects were selected and submitted this year to the judging committee and five leading projects were selected from them. After the judges met with the five representatives of the projects and heard in more detail about the product and the business model, three projects advanced to the finals: Aspira, Valtech and Human Macrophages for Post MI treatment.

The prize, a package of services valued at approximately $70,000, was given by Dr. Idan Tamir, CEO of the Red Biomed Incubator and the creator of the competition idea, who also announced the opening of registration for the 2007-2008 Outstanding Project competition. Registration for the competition through the website: www.radbiomed.com

According to Dr. Tamir, the competition is held for the benefit of encouraging excellence in the Israeli biomed industry and one of the conditions for submitting the application is the inventions of the project in the initial phase of Pre-seed.

The prize package includes: a $5,000 grant from the Red Biomed Incubator and the possibility to rent an office for one year free of charge in the incubator, the Kesselman and Kesselman accounting firm provides the winner with assistance in writing the business plan and/or help in the field of accounting services, the Reinhold Cohen patent drafting office provides consultation and patent filing For the PCT stage, Sunrise Projects helps in writing an application for an R&D grant from the scientist or another entity, the offices of Biomedical Strategy (2004) will provide advice on building a regulatory strategy, and Go-Global Marketing will provide a short video for the company's exposure.

According to Dr. Tamir, director of the Red Biomed incubator, "excellence deserves a special incentive, even if it originates from an exciting and high-potential project that did not germinate in the Red Biomed incubator. Our goal is to turn 'dry' academic research into a profitable medical-scientific industry."

The Red Biomed Incubator is a pioneering initiative of the Red Computer Communications Group. It began its journey in Israel in 1992, at the initiative of Yehuda and Zahar Zisafel and under the auspices of the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The company is located in Tel Aviv and focuses on fostering initiatives in various aspects of the life sciences: biotechnology, drug development, medical device development, diagnostics, and drug delivery. 7 companies currently operate between its walls: Ariomedica, Immunarei, Stadimed, Ricogen, Protrac, Maimonidex and Cytogen.

The projects in the first three places, expansion

VALTECH – the winner

Valtech develops an innovative device to repair the mitral valve through a catheterization procedure.
The currently accepted method for treating mitral valve insufficiency is through open heart surgery which involves many risks. Valtech will significantly reduce the high costs of the currently accepted procedure, the duration of the procedure and the long recovery time. Today, approximately 1.2 million new cases are diagnosed in the western world every year with mitral valve insufficiency. The company will start animal experiments this July.
Founder and CEO of the company: Amir Gross
Development engineer: Yeftah Beinert
The company started its activity in the Incentiv incubator in August 2006.
The company is supported by: Peregrine Investment Company and the Chief Scientist.

Aspira
Aspira is developing a tiny, single-use drug inhaler, the size of a credit card, as an answer to an ever-increasing demand from the industry for the introduction of drugs through the lungs. In this device, the powder is in a locked state and not in a vacuum, from the time of storage until the moment of introduction into the air stream inhaled by the patient, and this in complete synchronization with breathing.

Activated macrophages for operation in myocardial infarction (no company name)
The product is a new cellular therapy approach that uses activated human macrophages, produced from blood samples, to accelerate the healing process in the heart muscle after a heart attack.