The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry Trade & Labor have declared the proposed formation of a government backed biotechnology fund.

I had an interesting talk with a friend of mine who is about to complete his masters degree in biology.

“So what are you going to do outside the academy?” I asked him.

“I’m going to be a carpenter,” said he with a straight face. “I already signed myself up to a course offered by the government.”

Surprised? So was I. But with all honest, I really shouldn’t have been. We all know that there are way too many PhDs and MScs in Israel, and not many jobs to speak of. While there are more than 160 biotechnology R&D companies in Israel, 90% have less than 50 employees and most do not ordinarily reach commercial levels of development. In other words, if you have a PhD in one of the life sciences, you’re in for a tough ride trying to earn your bread and water out there.

The good news is that the Israeli government finally got around to doing something about the situation. The Ministry of Finance joined forces with the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor, to declare the proposed formation of a government backed biotechnology fund. I won’t get into all the details, but the basic idea is that the government will commit NIS 250 million to the fund as a limited partner.

I hope that this fund will aid the biotechnology market, whether by encouraging the growth of new companies, or even allowing some of them to actually get to local Phase II and Phase III experiments. But even if it won’t work out, I’m cool. After all, I can always fall back on carpentry.

For more information on the fund

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