Israeli start up partners with Dutch center to develop a cure for Atrial Fibrillation

Jun. 22 –  Israeli medtech startup company CLT has set up a joint venture with a Dutch medical institute to develop and commercialize an arrhythmia-detecting drug pump combined with a unique drug, for automatic and immediate treatment of emerging atrial fibrillation (AF). The Israeli company will set up the new venture Closed Loop Therapies (CLT) BV with Erasmus University Medical Center, a highly prominent medical institute based in Rotterdam. AF, the most common cardiac arrhythmia, causes morbidity, mortality, decreased quality of life and considerable healthcare expenses. Existing treatments, whether electrical, surgical or pharmacological, have proven largely inadequate due to limited efficacy and/or potential for adverse effects. The system is based on a breakthrough discovery by two of the founders of CLT, Professor Eli Ovsyshcher of Ben Gurion University and Dr Ilya Fleidervish of the Hebrew University. Their discovery led to a highly effective method for pharmacological conversion of AF, employing brief bolus injections of rapidly hydrolysable cholinergic agonists (RHCA) into the bloodstream. To further this discovery, CLT collaborated with Professor Luc Jordaens, of the Thorax Center of Erasmus MC and a leading expert in cardiac arrhythmia. “This joint venture is first of its kind between an Israeli medical startup and a Dutch center of excellence,” says Dr. Dan Gelvan, co-founder of CLT and director of CLT BV. “It opens opportunities for Israeli early-stage companies with complex technologies to establish an ‘incubation stage’ presence in Europe and obtain invaluable professional and financial support.”