It is known that Israel is the place for start ups. What is not so well known is why Jerusalem is now one of the world’s leading hubs for bio start ups. The change in the past decade has been phenomenal.

Yes, until recently, one associated Jerusalem with phrases like religion, history, tourism and probably a series of terms associated with conflict. Jerusalem merely hosted a few drug companies, such as Rafa and Teva. The latter had grown to become the world’s largest generic drug firm. It was one of the country’s few almost giants in the medical sector. Unfortunately, the board and management structure in recent years has seen Teva bring home a very poor performance.

Since roughly 2006, the city has deliberately set out to change that set up, specifically by tacking on to the world of bio and pharma. They identified that Jerusalem  possesses three core sources of talent. It hosts a world class university, several excellent hospitals and a population of diverse backgrounds yearning to be part of the start up nation.

Just over a decade a passed by. This week, I attended a presentation by Dr Shai Melcer, the outgoing CEO of BioJerusalem, who delivered a very interesting summary of  pthe progress achieved. BioJerusalem is the official arm of the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), a body which has created a plethora of benefits for the sector, and Shai has been a quite, subtle and highly effective communicator in his role for the past three years. Consider these stats: –

• The number of bio / pharma companies in Jerusalem has risen from 93 in 2013 to 149 by the end of 2016.
• Other cities in Israel are barely able to sustain their previous numbers.
• In the same period, sectorial employment has shot up from 2,581 to 4,085.
• The JDA is now helping to plan the new National Institute of Precision Medicine, which will be located in the holy city.
• Several new bio incubators have been set up and / or have been expanded in the past five years.
• In addition to Shai’s networking group “Bios4Bios“, JLM BioCity has been launched with tremendously exciting results. Both groups have regular meetings, securing opportunities for entrepreneurs and for investors.

There is still much more than can be effected from these efforts. To give just two examples, the Givat Ram university campus and the Har Hotzvim industrial area are providing more land for pharma comapnies. Jerusalem is clearly on the world map in the bio arena.