Medical device company Filterlex Medical has applied to the Haifa District Court to open liquidation proceedings after accumulating debt of NIS 1.3 million.
Lumenis founder Dr. Shimon Eckhouse is a shareholder in the company and its chairperson. The application filed by Adv. Achiad Harel on behalf of the company states, "The company has ceased all activity, has no revenue, no employees, and has no source of finance: neither shareholders’ equity, not credit, nor a grant."
The application for an order for opening liquidation proceedings and the appointment of a trustee explains that "the company has never generated any revenue." Filterlex is a startup company in medical equipment for cardiology that developed a system for protecting against embolisms, intended to reduce the risk of stroke during catheter-based structural heart procedures.
The company’s activity was entirely financed by capital raised from investors and by R&D grants, which, as the court application states, is a normal capital structure for a medical startup at the development stage, and is also its Achilles’ heel. "As long as the company does not have product sales, its existence is entirely dependent on its ability to raise the next round of financing." The application further states: "Although the company’s hope was that clinical data would present a different picture of the benefit of the device, that hope was disappointed."
An unsalaried CEO
Until the beginning of 2025, the company progressed along the expected route, the application claims. The product underwent a clinical trial in Israel, and in February 2025 approval was received from the US Food and Drug Administration for the start of a clinical trial of the second generation of the product in the US.
Then, the application states, "Results of a large study were published of a competitor product from Boston Scientific called Sentinel." From the results of the study it became clear that "there was little benefit in the kind of product developed by the company."
At a board meeting held shortly afterwards it was decided that the chances of raising further capital were low. Nevertheless, since additional competitor products were about to be unveiled that might change the picture, the board decided not to shut down the company’s activity but only to suspend it until the commercial picture became clear, the application states. Since June 2025, the company has been run by a CEO who drew no salary. The company’s debt amounts to NIS 1.3 million, most of which is owed to the EU.
The application also states that attempts were made to sell the company’s intellectual property, but without success, following which it was decided to proceed with shutting the company down.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 5, 2026.
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