Sources inform ''Globes'' that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has invested in biological sealant developer Lifebond Ltd. as part of the company's $20 million third financing round. Giza Venture Capital and Aurum Ventures MKI Ltd. are leading the round alongside current investors Pitango Venture Capital, GlenRock Israel, the Zitelman Group, and Lifebond co-chairman Robert Taub.
Lifebond was named as one of Israel's most promising start-ups for 2010 by "Globes".
Johnson & Johnson acquired Omrix Biopharmaceuticals, which Taub founded, for $425 million in 2006. It is interesting to see that Johnson & Johnson is investing in another company, which like Omrix, is developing a biological sealant.
Lifebond's flagship product is a surgical sealant for tissue after surgery to shorten the bowel. It partly competes with Omrix, and it seems that both Taub and Johnson & Johnson believe that Lifebond's products are as good as Omrix's products, but which Omrix's technology cannot produce.
Lifebond CEO Ishay Attar and COO Orahn Preiss-Bloom co-founded Lifebond in 2007, in the aftermath of the 2006 Second Lebanon War in order to develop next-generation would closure solutions for soldiers on the battlefield.
Lifebond will use proceeds from the financing round to complete preclinical trials of its LifeSeal sealant product to prevent life-threatening blood and fluid leakage from the intestine during surgery. Trials for LifeSeal for intestinal surgery under US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will use premarket approval (PMA) protocols, the longer protocol for medical devices. Lifebond believes that it can bring the product to market within two years.
Lifebond is also developing hemostats that are in early clinical trials and a product to prevent hernias.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 8, 2011
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