Israel
The life science industry in Israel is on an upward trajectory, with total investments in the Israeli life science sector reaching $1.2 billion in 2017. As of May, there are 1,450 active life science companies in Israel. Approximately 61% of companies are in R&D stages, while 35% and 4% are in initial revenues and seed stages, respectively.
In 2017, the largest sector was composed of medical device companies, making up 40%, although this figure has slowly declined over the years. This sector was followed by health care IT and therapeutics, which represented 31% of all life science companies, and diagnostics, which accounted for approximately 9%.
Funding for the life sciences by high-technology companies grew five percentage points in 2017 to represent 25% of the companies’ total investments. About $141 million, or 12%, was invested by Israeli venture capital (VC) companies, while $393 million, or 33%, was funded by non-VC companies. The Israeli government has invested more than $100 million over the past decade in the life sciences through the Israel Innovation Authority’s various programs. These programs provided the life science sector with 32% of its total grant funding in 2017.
Within the last decade, total investments in Israel’s life science sector have increased over 40%.
