Sources inform ''Globes'' that Yissum Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is raising a fund for investment in companies that graduated from it. The fund will total tens of millions of dollars, which will be invested in drug development companies that were founded at Yissum, including companies whose technology has already been commercialized by Yissum as start-ups. The fund will incorporate all of Yissum's current holdings and will make additional investments in companies.
Yissum declined to comment on the report.
Israeli financial institutions will be the main investors in the fund, possibly as part of the government program for encouraging institutional investment in venture capital funds.
Yissum's portfolio companies that might fit the fund's objectives include Atox Bio Ltd., which is developing a treatment for toxic shock syndrome and autoimmune diseases; Tiltan Pharma Ltd., which is developing a treatment for cancer to be taken in conjunction with current medications; MaimoniDex RA Ltd., which is developing a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis; Avraham Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which is developing a treatment for Alzhiemer's Disease; and Lipocure Ltd., which is developing cancer treatments.
Some of these companies have already obtained investments from other sources. The Yissum fund will invest together with other investors in order to maintain its holdings. The fund will not invest in former Yissum companies that have gone public, such as CollPlant Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLPT) and Biocancell Therapeutics Ltd. (TASE:BICL).
Yissum president and CEO Yaacov Michlin has said in the past that support for graduate portfolio companies as they go through the "valley of death" stage - which he said was between the departure from the laboratory until proof of concept in humans - was the critical component in developing an Israeli biomed industry.
The technology commercialization companies of Israeli universities, particularly Yissum, Yeda R&D Company Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd. are global leaders in technology commercialization.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 22, 2011
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