US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. will participate in a seminar next Tuesday for Israeli biotechnology companies, with a view to creating connections in Israel. Atid EDI, which is organizing the seminar, said that the seminar would be conducted by video on a Ra'anana movie theater screen, due to the security situation. Representatives of the Israeli companies will be able to ask questions of the speaker.
Atid EDI president Sherwin Pomerantz told "Globes" that he met Eli Lilly head of supercomputer applications and molecular design Dr. Riaz Abdulla in the US and asked him to hold the seminar by video conference. According to Pomerantz, the question of Abdulla visiting Israel was never raised. "We don't even suggest it to the Americans now. The question of who will and who will not pay in the event of damages constitutes a problem."
Abdulla, an American Muslim of Indian origin, is a senior executive in Eli Lilly’s research department and makes decisions on whether to approve of external research projects. He is also responsible for locating biotechnology companies for Eli Lilly, and is scheduled to speak about the technologies his company is looking for.
Pomerantz said that other US companies wish to organize similar events, since they are afraid to send their representatives to Israel. He added that 75 people had registered for the event, including representatives of biotechnology companies, consultant companies, and manufacturers.
Atid EDI is the Middle Eastern commercial representative of nine US states. The company has offices in Jerusalem, Jordan, and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Italian soccer team AC Milan today announced it would not come to Israel to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in a UEFA cup match, due to the situation in Israel. The game will be held at a neutral venue, while the return match will take place as scheduled at the AC Milan home stadium.
The deteriorating security situation has also led to renewed demand for foreign currency and a shekel depreciation. The shekel-dollar representative rate rose 0.47% to NIS 4.716, NIS 0.022 higher than yesterday’s representative rate.
The shekel has weakened by 1% since the beginning of the week. The shekel-dollar rate traded from NIS 4.698/$ to NIS 4.72/$ today, a NIS 0.22 range, amounting to 0.5%. The exchange rate is currently only NIS 0.028 below the record set on February 12.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on March 6, 2002