Israel’s dynamic biotechnology industry owes a debt of gratitude to Haim Aviv.
Haim Aviv
A former Weizmann Institute of Science professor, he is regarded as one of its founders.
Aviv, 69, broke new ground in 1980 by establishing Bio-Technology General Corporation, a genetic engineering company known today as Savient. He launched it with the assistance of venture capitalists in New York City.
At that time, there were few biotech companies in Israel, and the concept of establishing an entire industry based on something as capital-intensive and scientifically complex as biotechnology seemed inconceivable.
In recognition of his pioneering efforts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev awarded him an honorary degree earlier this year.
Nearly three decades on, Israel is home to a thriving $500-million industry of more than 100 biotech companies employing several thousand workers.
Among them are Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which has morphed into a global giant.
The founder of six biotech firms, including Pharmos and Diatech Diagnostics, Aviv was in Toronto recently to promote and seek out investors for his latest company, HerbaMed, of which he is chief executive officer.
HerbaMed has produced a health bar made from citrus peel, a source of fibre that can strengthen a weak heart and reduce bad cholesterol.
“It’s a natural product that potentially can do the job of the drug Lipitor,” he said in an interview, adding that Chinese and Indian medicine has long considered citrus peel as medicinally effective.
The bar, though sold in Russia and Ukraine, has yet to be marketed elsewhere.
Aviv, whose son is a stem cell researcher in Toronto, hopes to introduce the bar Canada and the United States within six months, and to the rest of Europe within a year, if he can find suitable investors and marketing partners.
In addition to the bar, Aviv has developed a range of products, sold in the form of capsules and beverages, that are useful in combating prostate problems and blindness and strengthening heart muscles.
The ingredients in these products are derived from fish oils (imported from Canada and Norway), cactus flowers and yeast.
Aviv, who has served as chair of Israel’s National Biotechnology Committee and has almost 40 scientific papers to his credit, earned a PhD in biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.
While at its department of virology, he successfully cloned the bovine growth hormone cDNA, which has increased milk production in Israel by a factor of about 10 per cent.
Aviv, who retired from the Weizmann Institute about 10 years ago to pursue private interests, became a biotech entrepreneur for two reasons: to staunch Israel’s brain drain and encourage young Israeli scientists.
As he put it, “One of the main things that motivated me was the huge drain of life science doctoral students from Israel. They would graduate from institutions of higher learning and leave the country, because there was no industrial infrastructure to absorb them.”
Until recently, Israel’s biotech industry suffered from a deficiency of local funding.
But now that the Israeli government has created a $100-million financing vehicle, researchers and entrepreneurs like Aviv may not have to look abroad for development funds.
“It’s long overdue,” he said of the fund. “I recommended it years ago.”
The biotech industry in Israel also needs more experienced managers, but this problem is gradually being overcome.
“We’re getting there,” said Aviv .
