AION

NOGA YERUSHALMI INVESTMENT DIRECTOR ,

M VENTURES

which Yerushalmi is involved with .

“ At the beginning , every pharmaceutical company thought they could lead the opportunity to establish the innovation lab ,” says Yerushalmi . “ Eventually , we saw that the enthusiasm lay with those four pharmas : AstraZeneca , Merck , Pfizer and Teva .”

But eventually , Teva pointed out that , rather than competing with one another , the four pharmas should join forces .

“ Kudos to them ,” says Yerushalmi . “ They brought us to the same table and we agreed to go to the tender together .”

M Ventures has joined forces with AstraZeneca , Merck , Pfizer and Teva

Before the tender , there were many discussions and meetings to be had .

“ Once we ’ d won the tender , the challenge was to reach a shareholders ’ agreement . It was a lot of work , especially for the team in Israel ,” says Yerushalmi .

The COVID-19 pandemic brought home to Yerushalmi the importance of research and the hard work that goes into it .

“ Throughout the pandemic , we understood the value of research . BioNTech and Pfizer were way ahead of the rest ,” shares Yerushalmi . “ Unfortunately , we also saw a big gap between the benefits scientific work can bring to humanity and the kind of disbelief some people have in science .”

To address this , Yerushalmi believes that society needs to do better in education , so that all people know that they can rely on science when it comes to preserving and maintaining health , and taking care of growing populations .

Over the next year , Merck is interested in increasing its foothold in Israel .

“ Israel is known to be a place of innovation , talent , and technology ,” says Yerushalmi proudly . “ Nothing is set yet , but we do plan to increase our visibility here .”

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