Ten years ago, Dr. Michael Har-Noy, founder and CEO of a Jerusalem-based startup developing an immunotherapy treatment that could potentially cure cancer, lamented that the fight against the dreaded disease “is a battle we are losing.” Today, Har-Noy’s company is getting closer to turning the tide.
In the past decade, Immunovative Therapies has conducted dozens of clinical trials, opened branches in California, Arizona and Thailand, and raised $35 million.
But the biggest boost came from the publicity surrounding immunotherapy pioneer Jim Allison, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Ten years ago, “We couldn’t get a venture capitalist to open a business plan if they saw the words ‘immunotherapy.’ They’d say, ‘That doesn’t work in cancer,’” Har-Noy tells ISRAEL21c.
Following Allison’s work that proved immunotherapy’s efficacy, “anyone with ‘immune’ in their name is now able to raise funds,” Har-Noy says.
Indeed, consulting firm Transparency Market Research predicts that the global market value of cancer immunotherapy drugs will reach $124 billion by 2024. -- MORE...
ISRAEL21c was founded in 2001, in the wake of the Second Intifada, to broaden public understanding of Israel beyond typical portrayals in the mainstream media.
The organization’s founders – Israeli-American technology executives – understood the great power of the Internet and developed a first-of-its kind online product with global appeal and reach.