Robert Taub is disappointed. After nearly a decade, during which he founded Omrix Biopharmaceuticals here and sold it to Johnson & Johnson for $438 million, Taub stresses that his business romance with the holy land has ended, discordantly. Next month, the testimony stage will begin in the State of Israel's intellectual property lawsuit against the biosurgical sealant company.
The state claims that Taub stole the patent from a doctor at the government-owned Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, without paying the state for the intellectual property rights. Taub and Omrix claim that the invention was unconnected to the doctor's activity.
"Today, I am setting up companies in Belgium, and examining other countries in Europe," Taub says in an exclusive interview with "Globes". "I have received grants you can get nice amounts if you don't insist on being in Israel and no-one checks us out the way the Chief Scientist in Israel did. I never looked into these possibilities in the past, because I was in Israel."
In the past two years, Taub has set up three companies. "I'm happy to recruit Israeli workers," he says, "as long as they are 100% not former government employees. I transfer them to me in Europe. I won't do the clinical trials in Israel either."
If you win the case, will you change your mind?
"I really don't know."
Finance from Bill Gates
Alongside these harsh words, which are perhaps part of the tactics in the lawsuit, there is also a reality in which Nyxoah, currently Taub's leading investment, maintains a branch in Ramat Gan. Just to be on the safe side.
Nyxoah has developed a miniature medical device for treating obstructive sleep apnea through stimulation of the nerves. Taub plans to set up further companies shortly that will be based on the same patents and will attempt to treat migraine and falling blood pressure. Taub is actively involved in running the companies, with an investment of several million dollars in each.
Taub has also recently invested in Uteron Pharma, which specializes in gynecology. "They have a new product in the area of intra-uterine devices that includes a delayed release hormone. They received finance from the Bill Gates Foundation, even though they are not active in Africa, because they agreed that as soon as the product was approved in the US, they would sell it at cost price in distressed areas within the US where the rate of teenage pregnancy is high. Over the years, they have received government subsidies amounting to tens of millions of dollars. I think that after three years of activity, we will also bring venture capital funds into these companies, in the final stage."
What is the regulatory strategy?
"Because of the strict regulation in the US and the pressure on prices, we will focus on Europe first. This is apart from sleep apnea, a very widespread phenomenon in the US, where awareness of it is high. However, even someone who focuses on Europe won't always want to start with a CE approval alone. It will generally be together with an FDA approval, or at least with an additional trial after the CE, which draws customers."
Despite his frustration with the government, Taub continues to invest in three Israeli companies: listed company Glycominds Ltd. (TASE: GLCM); NeuroDerm, in which listed company Capital Point is invested; and privately-held LifeBond.
You continue to be involved in these companies, even though they're Israeli?
"That, yes, I don't abandon companies in which I have already invested."
You are invested in LifeBond. Does it bother you that they compete with Omrix?
"That's too sensitive a question."
"Fortunately, we didn't float NeuroDerm"
What do you think of Glycominds?
"It's a very good company from the point of view of science and management. Their CEO (Dr. Avinoam Dukler - G.W.) transferred to the US, and they are gradually becoming a US company. They will have to undergo a long marketing process, because it will be necessary to persuade the doctors to prescribe the procedures, and then to go to insurer after insurer to persuade it to give cover.
"Their position looks very good at the moment. We'll know more in a year's time. Meanwhile, they'll have to raise more money for that. It's a pity that they're registered in Israel, and listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at that, which is very sad."
Why sad?
"It's not worthwhile being on the Israeli capital market. Many of their colleagues are companies that should never have been public at all. The investors aren't sophisticated enough. There aren't enough analysts. Stocks can sink not because the company is bad but because of lack of interest, or because there's so little money on the market."
You nearly did the same with NeuroDerm
"I was against, and I managed to stop it. Fortunately, market conditions were bad. The cost of the process really annoyed me as well. The price you have to pay underwriters compared with what you get from them doesn't justify the move."
What's happening at your company Recoly, which has a development center in Israel?
"The company has an agreement with Bayer concerning a factor viii product, a blood component for treating leukemia, in a version that breaks down less rapidly in the blood. The collaboration continues even though they halted the trial. One trial that fails doesn’t always have to mean failure for the product. The company itself is in a very reasonable position. We carried out a trial with another factor. For the time being, Israeli company Omri Laboratories, which serves as a development center for them, produces products for other companies too, it's not a company that only works for Recoly."
What else do you do these days?
"I paint. I play golf. Once, I had philanthropic activities in Israel, but I've cut back on them too."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 29, 2012
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