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Israel-India Business Guide - MedTech, Pharma & Biotech
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MedTech
Meeting global healthcare challenges
Israel's Life Science Industry
The life science industry represents a significant growth engine for Israel’s economy,
and keep growing from year to year
Background
Healthcare systems around the world face serious
challenges.
• Healthcare costs are soaring, reaching upwards of 11%
of the GDP in Europe and 16% of the GDP in the United
States.
• Populations are aging and their numbers are increasing.
The oldest members of the baby boom generation
(1946-1964) in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
are approaching 65.
• The emerging middle classes in China, India, and other
developing countries now demand better, higher
quality medical care.
• There is a critical need to lower healthcare costs overall.
• To address and meet these challenges, governments,
organizations, and the healthcare industry itself are all
moving the market in new directions.
• Technological advances enable the shift of treatments
and procedures from inpatient to outpatient to home
care. At the same time, the growing emphasis on early
diagnosis and preventive medicine today helps to
control the soaring costs of healthcare services.
• Technological advances open the door for new solutions:
devices for improved inpatient and ambulatory care;
biomarkers for accurate, earlier diagnosis; healthcare
IT for monitoring the elderly and patients in rural
communities, while paving the way toward personalized
medicine in the future.
As a recognized leader of creative developments in the
world of high tech, Israel has become a leading provider
of innovative solutions in the life science arena to meet
today’s healthcare challenges and the world’s evolving
needs.
Why Israel?
A strong entrepreneurial spirit pervades Israeli society.
Perhaps fueled by a young country’s need to develop
creative solutions quickly and cost-effectively, or inspired
by improvisation and calculated risk-taking, it seems that
innovation is an Israeli way of life.
• Israel’s 16 Technology Transfer Organizations (TTOs)
showcase the creative fusion among the universities,
hospital systems, businesses, and the military. All of
the TTOs are dedicated to encouraging and promoting
research projects and military technology from the lab
to the world market.
• Healthcare is a priority in a well-educated country. Israel
spends 8% of its GDP on healthcare. It boasts a very
high level of healthcare and an extensive infrastructure
of quality resources that range from local community
clinics to world-renowned trauma centers. The country
has a high ratio of MDs to population (3.5 per 1,000).
The country’s entrepreneurial spirit runs through this
sector as well: Many Israeli physicians are both early
adopters of new technologies and developers of original
technologies in their own right.
• Israel has a highly skilled workforce. The country has the
greatest number of scientists and engineers per capita in
the world; 24% of the workforce has academic degrees.
• The defense community nurtures the life science
industry. Extensive investment in developing state-
of-the-art technologies for defense has proved fertile
ground for advanced life science applications. Two very
well known innovations emerged from Rafael, Israel
Armament Development Authority: PillCamTM, a video
capsule endoscope (developed by Given Imaging) and
cryotherapy for the treatment of cancer (developed by
Galil Medical).
• Strong institutional incentives support the development
of new technologies. The 23 government-licensed
technological incubators, which began in the 1990s
as a way to provide employment opportunities for
new immigrant scientists and engineers (many from
the former Soviet Union), has evolved as a successful
framework for advancing and commercializing early-
stage life science technologies.
• In fact, in 2008, approximately 38%of the 1,175 incubator
graduate companies continued beyond the incubator
stage to function as mature companies. Nearly half of
• Israel’s technological incubators focus on the life
sciences or biotechnology. At the end of 2008, 41% of all
incubated companies were involved in medical devices
and 18% in biotechnology. Of the $360 million in grant
money awarded to incubator companies by Israel’s
Office of the Chief Scientist in 2008, 25.4% went to those
involved in the life sciences.
• The world’s venture capital community keeps its focus
on Israel. In 2008, about 80 Israeli and international VC