The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation
(BIRD), has approved investment of approximately $ 12 million in 14 new projects
with total budget in excess of $ 32 million. The investments were approved at
the semi-annual board meeting, held on Thursday in the US.
Among the prominent US companies participating in the projects
are: The American Red Cross, Cleveland Clinic, Quintiles, Air Liquide, Archer
Daniels Midland, Wind River and Netro.
BIRD reports that six of the approved projects, about 40% of the
total number, focus on Life Sciences and Healthcare. Two are aimed at the
development of drugs for malignant
diseases, such as breast cancer and nervous
system degeneration diseases. Drug development, as is
well known, is an expensive and lengthy project and the BIRD Foundation has
chosen to focus on its initial stages. The other projects deal with medical
devices, industrial use of enzymes and medical database systems.
One of the approved projects brings together Visuality Systems, a
young Israeli start-up with expertise in client-server tools development for the
computerized embedded systems and Wind River Systems, its US partner and one of
the leading companies worldwide in software development applied to embedded
systems. The two companies will jointly develop a software product which will
connect between electronic instruments such as printers, digital TV sets,
communication equipment and calculators such as Palm Pilot for sharing
information. This product will enable end-users to install, interface, share and
control the instruments employing simple commands.
Another interesting project, which focuses on the medical database
system field, is a cooperative effort between MSM –Medical Systems Management,
the US partner and Contec Medical, from Israel.
The companies will jointly develop a software system to manage the
medical file of a patient who is undergoing an operation. Contec Medical’s
expertise is in clinical data capture, and the expertise of the American company
is in software integration and data management for the Healthcare industry.
The products of the two companies will be merged into an upgraded
integrated system to manage operating rooms, which would be connected to the
hospital’s central information system.
The largest gas company in the world, Air Liquide, which builds
and operates gas separation systems in the petrochemical industry, will perform
a joint project through its subsidiary MEDAL, with the Israeli start-up company
Carbon Membranes Ltd. CML has developed and produced hollow carbon fiber
molecular sieve membranes for various gas separations. The project is based on
an innovative technology for separating propane from propylene.
This technology is intended to replace part of the expensive,
energy consuming splitters in use today for separating propylene, a principal
raw material used in the petrochemical industry, and in production of the widely
used plastic polypropylene.
The developed product will bring about considerable savings in
both investment and production costs of refineries and polypropylene production
facilities.
Dov Hershberg, BIRD’s Executive Director, said: “Despite the
global market crisis and the uneasy situation in Israel, 8 leading American
companies are participating in these projects. This fact testifies to the
attractiveness of Israeli technology and to the confidence these
companies have in the Israeli
hi-tech industry.”
Hershberg adds, “The approved projects show that activity in the
Israeli Life Sciences field continues to increase – both in drug development and
in medical devices. The hi-tech crisis, particularly the reduced amount of
capital available from VCs and other investors, has led to an increased number
of applications to BIRD for support from Communications, Internet and IT
companies.”
The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development
Foundation, BIRD, was established by the two governments in 1977. BIRD works
closely with the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) at the Israeli Ministry of
Industry and Trade, and with the US National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). Both are represented on BIRD’s board of governors, and the
chairmanship of the board rotates between the two.
The Foundation undertakes, at no cost, to find strategic partners
for the development of joint products. BIRD funds up to 50% of a project ‘s
budget, from the R&D stage to initial marketing, without taking equity. If a
project fails to reach commercial realization, BIRD does not request any
repayment of its grant.
Since its establishment in 1977, BIRD has given support of more
than $180 million to about 600 projects, which have generated sales of over $7
billion.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on June 24,
2001