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Chiasma Closes $2 Million Financing Round from Jerusalem Global Ventures' Life Sciences Fund InnoMed
(Jerusalem, Israel, 25 March 2003): InnoMed, Jerusalem Global Ventures' life sciences fund, has invested $2 million in the start-up company Chiasma. This is the seed financing round for the company that was established in 2002 by Guy Yachin, former CEO of Naiot and Professor Shmuel Ben-Sasson, one of Israel's leading entrepreneurs. Chiasma was established via Yissum, the Hebrew University's research and "know-how" commercialization company.
Chiasma develops innovative solutions for the non-invasive delivery of protein drugs. Chiasma's technology enables drugs to be administered into the bloodstream without the need for injections. Chiasma is headed by Guy Yachin, formerly CEO of the Naiot Technological Center. In this position he played a major role in establishing over a dozen biomedical companies including Remon, Mindguard, Enzymotech and MGVS. In 2002, Guy Yachin founded the company as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Jerusalem Global Ventures. The company's CTO is Professor Shmuel Ben-Sasson, a world-renowned scientist from the Hebrew University and a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of numerous patents and scholarly papers and is the scientific inventor of Keryx's KinAce drug discovery platform. Dr Dalia Megiddo, General Managing Partner of InnoMed, said: "One of the primary challenges facing the industry is to develop an oral administration for complex (protein) drugs. This field currently represents a multi-billion dollar market. We believe in the company's entrepreneurs and are encouraged by its rate of development". Dr Shlomo Kalish, Chairman and Founding Partner of Jerusalem Global Ventures, said: "Guy Yachin is an entrepreneur with a successful track record, whom we have teamed up with the world-renowned Professor Ben-Sasson, one of Israel's leading biotechnology researchers. We intend to continue investing in more entrepreneurs in order to create companies that are able to realize the enormous technological potential that exists in Israel." Dr Kalish added: "We are currently examining a number of options for new investments. Jerusalem Global Ventures intends to accelerate its rate of investments in 2003". According to Mr. Avi Barak, Yissum's CEO, this kind of cooperation comes as a welcome step in strengthening the links between the University and industry, enabling both financing of important research, and facilitating progress in the pharmaceutical industry. Chiasma, located in Netanya, intends to recruit more employees in order to expand its product development process. InnoMed: Headed by Dr Dalia Megiddo, InnoMed is Jerusalem Global Ventures' life sciences fund. Jerusalem Global Ventures - Funding Exceptional Entrepreneurs : Jerusalem Global Ventures is an Israeli venture capital fund that invests in seed and early stage communications, information technology and life sciences companies. JGV has $156 million in capital for investment in exceptional entrepreneurs. JGV's investors include many of the world's leading technology companies and financial institutions as well as international executive investors. JGV's investors include Agilent Technologies, AOL/Time Warner, Bank of America, China Development Industrial Bank, Bausch & Lomb, Comverse, Conexant, Itochu Techno-Science, JDS, Uniphase, Motorola and Telecom Italia Lab. Executive investors include Atiq Raza, Haim Saban and Andrew Viterbi. Yissum: Yissum is the research development company of the Hebrew University and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University. Yissum's aims are to protect, promote and commercialize the "know-how" accumulated at the University. The company was established in 1964, and is the leading company in its field. It owns approximately 800 patents granted, files another 50 patent applications each year, and is promoting about 200 active projects to industries throughout the world in areas of biotechnology, nanotechnology, pharmaceutics, medicine, chemistry, physics, agriculture, and computers. www.yissum.co.il Back to Press Releases |
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