Growth Interrupted: Sustaining The Israeli Life Science Innovation Engine

Maximizing the productivity of life science innovation hubs across the globe is of ever increasing importance to the continued vitality of the life science products industry. Israel's culture of innovation has produced a large number of start-up companies and product ideas, particularly in medical devices, but Israel has developed remarkably few mature life science companies. One major historical factor preventing Israeli start-ups from maturing into later stage companies is the absence of significant growth capital necessary to finance this kind of company development, which has lead to what the authors term an ongoing market failure. The authors argue that both private and public action is necessary to address this market failure in Israel, and that such action will benefit both that country and the industry as a whole by maintaining this fertile source of life science innovation.