5 Israel: Breathing More Life into Life Sciences Over 1,500 companies in life sciences sector in Israel With the Coronavirus pandemic brightly shining the spotlight on the pharmaceutical industry, and scientific disciplines more broadly, the Life Sciences and Health Technologies market is considered one of the largest globally, and is only moving in only one direction. Following a record-breaking 2021, pharmaceutical, life science and healthcare service companies are continuing to attract investors, fueled by innovations in biotechnology and patient services and ongoing digitalization. For its part in this sector, Israel has unique assets that constitute potential for global leadership. Israel boasts over 1,500 companies in the life sciences sector, more than 70% in medical devices and digital health, and there have been some headline transactions in the sector in recent years. In August 2022, a new consortium led by Israeli VC firm Peregrine Growth, having won the tender for the Incentive Technology Incubator, committed to jointly invest NIS 300 million in the companies operating in or graduating from the incubator, which has already produced an impressive list of life sciences and medical devices companies. These include Israel’s Valtech - sold to Edwards for USD 690million - Israel’s CartiHeal - sold to Bioventus for USD 500 million – and Israel’s Cardiovalve - sold to China’s Venus Medtech – all of these announced in 2021. These transactions follow some mammoth deals in recent years. Mazor Robotics was snapped up in 2018 by Irish-US firm Medtronic for USD 1.6 billion, the largest acquisition in the history of the Israeli life sciences industry, and Lumenis was acquired in 2019 for USD 1.2 billion, by funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BEPA). But why does Israel do so well?
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