Pharma "now 71.5% of Israeli biotech sales"

Sales in Israel's biotechnology sector advanced 33% to $800 million lastyear, with pharmaceuticals representing 71.5% of the sector's total turnover, up from 66.9% in 1999, according to a new report published by Israel's national biotechnology committee and previewed in the national newspaper Ha'aretz.

The pharmaceutical sales figures include those for two multiple sclerosis treatments, Teva's Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) and Serono's subsidiary Interpharm's Rebif (interferon beta-1a), although Ha'aretz comments that the report does not specify the weight of these two medicines withinin the sector's overall revenue figures. Copaxone achieved worldwide sales of $247 million during 2000, an increase of 48% over 1999's figures, and the newspaper notes that this alone would account for approximately $120 million of the growth in Israel's biotechnology turnover during 2000. Much of Interpharm's 2000 revenues of $58.8 million came from sales of Rebif, it adds.

There were 25 biotechnology start-ups in Israel last year, compared with 16 in 1999, all of them operating within the medical sector. 21 of these companies were involved in developing technology platforms and 15 were active in diagnostics.