Misgav Technology Center portfolio company High Tech Lipids Ltd. has signed a cooperation agreement with Italy's Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA, a leading European pharmaceutical company of products for premature infants. Chiesi will finance and support High Tech Lipids from initial clinical trials of its innovative lipid emulsion through regulatory approval and product commercialization.
If High Tech Lipids passes all the milestones, Chiesi's investment in the company could reach $26 million. High Tech Lipids believe that the financing will be sufficient to get its product to market.
Chiesi invested $5 in High Tech Lipids 18 months ago. It promises additional financing, if necessary. Chiesi will get exclusive marketing rights to High Tech Lipids' products.
Product development will take place in Israel, and High Tech Lipids will keep proprietary rights. The company is due to begin animal trials of its lipid emulsions in a few months.
Total parenteral nutrition is a life-saving therapy for patients who cannot be fed through the digestive system, especially premature infants. For premature newborns, inadequate nutrition can severely impair their normal growth and development, precluding the development of the brain, nervous system, immune system, and eyes, among others. Lipid emulsions currently available are not optimized for neonates and other compromised infants, and in many cases neither for adult patients.
High Tech Lipids clinical researchers Dr. Gelia Rozen and Dr. Irit Shochat founded the company. Both work at the Clinical Nutrition Department at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. They expect the company's product to reach market in 2014.
In the past, Shochat told "Globes" that fatty acids included in current formula for premature infants are actually liable to cause side effects and complications.
High Tech Lipids' fatty acid technology was invented by CTO Dr. Sobhi Basheer, who also developed the lipid technology underpinning Enzymotec Ltd.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 11, 2009
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