Alfred Mann plans to invest $250 million in an Israeli factory that will produce insulin inhalers developed by a MannKind Corporation (Nasdaq:MMKD) subsidiary. The factory is slated to be built in either the Gush Segev industrial park or in Netanya. Construction of the factory will take 2-3 years, and it will employ several hundred persons when completed, a figure that might subsequently rise to several thousand.
MannKind’s insulin inhaler is undergoing final trials for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The scale of production and therefore the investment in the factory is strongly contingent upon this approval. The phase II clinical trial of the inhaler achieved promising results.
Alfred Mann began becoming involved in Israel recently. A year ago, he donated $100 million to the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, one of 12 universities worldwide that received the same amount as part of Mann’s program to support the commercialization of technologies.
Mann has also acquired NESS- Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Systems Ltd. in a two-stage deal. He first established a US company, Bioness Inc.. to exclusively market NESS’s product in the US. Bioness recently completed its takeover of NESS for $75 million in cash and shares.
Mann’s decision to establish a factory in Israel is based on his confidence in the professionalism of Israeli manpower, Zionism, and an assessment that one of the factors hindering an Israeli medical industry is a lack of manufacturing experience.
Mann’s fortune in estimated at $2.2 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 15, 2007
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