BIOTECH METROPOLIS: A view of Tel Aviv, a hub of Israel’s fast-growing biotech industrySHMULIKO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In 2010, Daniel Teper, a New York-based biotech consultant and former executive with GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, approached Simon Benita, dean of the School of Pharmacy and head of the Drug Research Institute at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Teper was interested in commercializing Benita’s new drug-delivery technology. The two entrepreneurs had worked together previously to start the successful France-based ophthalmology biotech, Novagali, but this time, Teper decided to establish the new venture in Israel.
“I was familiar with the environment of innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel,” says Teper, an American who had worked with Israeli companies in the past. He knew that Israel had low start-up costs compared to the United States or Europe, and a thriving community of angel investors. “In Israel, the amount of ...
