On Friday, the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network announced it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Israel Innovation Authority to collaborate on ways to support Israeli healthcare startups.
The MOU would establish a formal affiliation between the AHN’s Research Institute and the Innovation Authority to provide Israeli healthcare startups with access to AHN facilities for pilot projects, advanced technology support and other assistance.
“We’re excited to partner with the Israel Innovation Authority to help cultivate some of their country’s brightest health care startups, and we’re thrilled to work with their entrepreneurs as they refine, test and scale innovative new technologies that may one day benefit patients and medical providers here in Pittsburgh, and around the world,” said Tariq J. Cheema, MD, medical director of the AHN Research Institute.
When the initiative is launched, officials said, the organizations will collaborate on technologies and business development opportunities that might bring some of Israel’s most promising health technology startups to Pittsburgh, giving companies local research partnerships with American operations.
Once the collaboration is finalized this year, applications to enter the program will open up in Israel, with AHN Research and the Innovation Authority selecting, screening and approving finalists. The selected companies will receive up to 50 percent funding from the Innovation Authority for conducting research and development projects or pilots with AHN.
“The ability to develop a drug suitable for a particular population, to ensure its safety, and to prove its efficacy with precision, is paving the way for faster, smarter, and cost-effective medical care,” said Dr. Amiram Appelbaum, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and Chief Innovation Scientist at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. “We are delighted to collaborate with an outstanding partner such as AHN, which has a rich legacy of advancing pioneering scientific research and groundbreaking clinical innovations that have improved the health and well-being of so many people over the decades.”