The purpose of the visit is to examine potential collaboration between the visitors and the new initiative in the Negev, BGU being one of the partners in the project. Prof. Rivka Carmi, president of the university, places a great amount of value in the initiative, which can be directed to promote the fields of life sciences and biotechnology in the area.

“Bio-Negev was founded so as to classify the Negev as an international center for the biotechnology and life sciences industry.” Says Dr. Shay Yarkoni, Bio-Negev’s CEO and chairman of the advisory board of the export institute in the life sciences field. Yarkoni, a medical doctor and a senior manager in the biotechnology industry, has emphasized that Bio-Negev is today the only cluster from Israel that is also a partner of the steering committee of the European CEBR, and that it will integrate resources and existing abilities (academic, clinical and industrial) and will act towards the establishment of industrial foundations in the area and serve as an epicenter that will attract monetary, organizations, management and human resources to the Negev.

Source: Ben-Gurion University’s press release

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Yissum has announced that, together with the Technion Research and Development Foundation (TRDF), the technology transfer arm of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, it will exclusively license to Avraham the commercial rights of Ladostigil, a novel cholinesterase, brain-selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor and neuroprotective agent for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The drug has proven to be safe and well tolerated in Phase I/IIa clinical trials. As part of an advanced product development program, Avraham will use the newly invested capital to complete an additional 52-week Phase II proof-of-concept efficacy trial in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Ladostigil is a novel compound that was designed to provide a comprehensive medical treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Like other cholinesterase inhibitors currently on the market, Ladostigil targets symptomatic relief in Alzheimer’s patients. But unlike these drugs, Ladostigil is the first multi-functional drug to reach clinical trials, acting via additional novel mechanisms of action, providing potential to improve the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia such as depression and anxiety. Ladostigil also has the potential to slow progression of clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease for sustained periods of time and to modify the pathology associated with the disease – and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

The novel drug was envisaged by Prof. Marta Weinstock-Rosin of the Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Moussa B.H. Youdim of the Eve Top and National Parkinson Foundation Centers of Excellence Rappaport School of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel.

Prof. Weinstock-Rosin’s research at the Hebrew University also led to the discovery and development of Exelon^®, a blockbuster drug for treatment of dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease as well as dementia in Parkinson’s disease, which was licensed to and is marketed by Novartis Pharma AG. Prof. Youdim’s research at the Technion led to the discovery and development of Azilect^®, a successful new drug for treatment of Parkinson’s disease, which was licensed to and is marketed by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

 Dr. David Warshawsky is the CEO of Avraham Pharmaceuticals.

Taken from ILSI website

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Researchers from Ben-Gurion University reveal that anti-inflammatory drugs interfere with aspirin’s clotting ability, making it near useless for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes in millions of people

Oftentimes, we find that certain medications aren’t quite as useful as we imagined they were, or that they have unwanted side effects. This usually occurs with newer drugs, like Merck’s Vioxx, but now Researchers from the Ben-Gurion University reveal that one of the oldest medications in the book does not work as well as we would like it to. Aspirin’s effect in preventing blood clots appears to be countered by Celebrex and other anti-inflammatory drugs.

This basically means that the millions of elderly Americans who take Celebrex for arthritis or other pains, while also taking a low-dose aspirin tablet daily to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, are gaining little to no benefit from the aspirin. This study mirrors a cooperative study conducted at the University of Michigann, Ann Arbor, that showed for the first time that Celebrex and other coxibs directly interfere with the protective qualities of aspirin.

Source – Ben-Gurion University

The complete paper in PNAS

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Researchers from Ben-Gurion University reveal that anti-inflammatory drugs interfere with aspirin’s clotting ability, making it near useless for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes in millions of people

Oftentimes, we find that certain medications aren’t quite as useful as we imagined they were, or that they have unwanted side effects. This usually occurs with newer drugs, like Merck’s Vioxx, but now Researchers from the Ben-Gurion University reveal that one of the oldest medications in the book does not work as well as we would like it to. Aspirin’s effect in preventing blood clots appears to be countered by Celebrex and other anti-inflammatory drugs.

This basically means that the millions of elderly Americans who take Celebrex for arthritis or other pains, while also taking a low-dose aspirin tablet daily to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, are gaining little to no benefit from the aspirin. This study mirrors a cooperative study conducted at the University of Michigann, Ann Arbor, that showed for the first time that Celebrex and other coxibs directly interfere with the protective qualities of aspirin.

Source – Ben-Gurion University

The complete paper in PNAS

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