Israeli medical-device incubator MEDX Xelerator is broadening international collaboration with innovation hubs in the EU and the US to advance medical technologies.
In the EU, MEDX Xelerator will collaborate with Health Hub Vienna (HHV), a healthcare-innovation acceleration program managed by INiTS, a Vienna-based incubator developing life-sciences start-ups for over 15 years.
In the US, MEDX Xelerator will collaborate with Parvizi Surgical Innovation (PSI), a private, Philadelphia-based accelerator founded by key opinion leaders in orthopedics and led by Prof. Javad Parvizi from Thomas Jefferson University’s Rothman Institute, an institution considered a world leader in orthopedics.
MEDX Xelerator has also launched collaboration with an academic institution - the University of Navarra (UN), a prominent innovation center in Spain. Through these collaborations, MEDX Xelerator, HHV, PSI and UN will facilitate exchange in fields that are essential to innovation infrastructure, such as exposure to investors, mentors and industry leaders, as well as leverage their extensive networks of strategic partners, hospitals and universities.
MEDX Xelerator’s CEO Shai Policker said that MEDEX selected these strategically important collaborators because of their unique settings and capabilities: HHV is supported by the Austrian government and works closely with Austrian hospitals, which are prominent in Europe. PSI maintains high positioning in orthopedics and is located in Philadelphia, an important life-sciences hub in the United States, with over seven medical schools, a world-renown orthopedic research center, 22 nursing schools and 100 medical centers. "MEDX Xelerator’s entrepreneurs will be able to leverage exposure and direct access to leading innovation and medical hubs with great potential to promote their technologies," said Policker.
The collaborations with HHV, PSI and UN are a part of MEDX Xelerator’s proactive strategy that leverages the incubator and its partners’ infrastructure in business, technology, intellectual property, regulation and finance to address significant unmet medical needs. Among other programs, the incubator developed the unique "X Lab" program, which supports inventors and entrepreneurs with very early-stage ideas in defining their project and arriving at proof-of-concept in order to become an incubator company. The X Lab program’s first graduate is Exero Medical, which had entered its next phase of development as a matured incubator company in September.
Exero Medical, led by Erez Shor, PhD, is developing a biodegradable implant that detects life-threatening leaks after digestive surgeries.
EndoWays, led by Noam Shamay, is developing a robotic self propelling and steerable micro-catheter intended to help physicians access intricate blood vessels and perform procedures such as blocking small blood vessels feeding tumors while reducing radiation to the staff and the patient.
Append Medical, led by Zachi Berger, PhD, aims to reduce the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation patients using a novel implantable device to eliminate the left atrial appendage. The device, addressing a $10B market potential was initially developed at Sheba hospital by Prof. Leonid Sternik, head of cardiac surgery
Plasmed, the latest entry to the incubator is based on a new technology for treating cancer of internal organs (e.g. lungs, liver, bladder). The technology was developed at the Technion Plasma Lab in collaboration with researchers at Rambam hospital led by Dr. Jacob Cohen and will provide the first endoscopic device intended to selectively kill cancer cells why sparing healthy tissue and. prompt the body’s own immune system to fight metastatic tumors throughout the rest of the body.
MEDX Xelerator is a MedTech incubator located in Or Yehuda, Israel, specializing in seed-stage medical technologies for minimally invasive procedures, medical robotics and implantables. Its partners are MEDX Ventures Group, Boston Scientific, Intellectual Ventures and Sheba Medical Center.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 14, 2018
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