SteadyMed Therapeutics has just joined the growing list of Israeli companies that got their start in a technological incubator, and that went on to gain investor confidence in a big way, by raising $40 million in its NASDAQ IPO.
SteadyMed Ltd. is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of drug products to treat orphan and high value diseases with unmet parenteral delivery needs. The company’s lead candidate is Trevyent, a development stage drug product that utilizes SteadyMed’s PatchPump technology to administer treprostinil, a vasodilatory prostacyclin analogue to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. PatchPump is a proprietary, disposable, parenteral drug administration platform that is prefilled and preprogrammed at the site of manufacture.
While the company is headquartered in the USA, much of the R&D work is done in Rehovot Israel.
As stated above, the company’s chief product is its PatchPump drug delivery system. The PatchPump is attached to the patient’s body where it delivers medication over a defined period using a battery powered disposable pump. The the battery (called an e-cell) serves as both power supply and pump as is shown in the following video clip:
The company got its start in 2005 in the Rad Biomed incubator by three founders: Ian Solomon, Amir Genosar, and Gideon Kahana. As with many Israeli startups the founders initially worked without receiving a salary while outsourcing much of the development work.