July 31, 2018

Three life-science giants — Medtronic, GE Healthcare and Change Healthcare – will expand their Israeli R&D centers over the next six years with the help of a ₪120 million ($33 million) grant from the Israel Innovation Authority and Ministry of Economy and Industry.

“Expanding these R&D centers will help position Israel as a leading player in the field of biomedicine, while creating high-quality jobs in the fields of engineering and manufacturing, generating additional exports worth billions of dollars,” said Eli Cohen, Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry.

“These three companies join 320 other foreign multinationals active in Israel, positioning the country as an international leader in innovation and as an attractive hub for global companies,” said Cohen.

Aharon Aharon, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, said the expanded R&D centers “will bring unique knowledge and experience to the local workforce and will serve as the basis for the continued growth of Israel’s innovation ecosystem and Israeli companies growing here.”

Change Healthcare is one of the world’s leading suppliers of digital health solutions, with $3.3 billion in annual revenue. Its development center in Israel was established in 1993, with more than 100 employees, developing monitoring and information systems for cardiology. These solutions constitute part of the total array of products the company produces for medical imaging, installed in more than 3,300 hospitals worldwide.

GE Healthcare, the health division of General Electric, has sales reaching $18 billion annually. It has acquired several Israeli companies since the late 1990s and currently employs 410 people in R&D centers located in Tirat HaCarmel, Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Rehovot focused on systems for ultrasound and nuclear medicine. It will expand its activity in PET-CT — medical imaging for the identification of cancerous tumors — at the Rehovot and in Tirat HaCarmel facilities, and will open a new Israeli R&D center.

Medtronic, founded in 1949, is one of the world’s largest companies in the field of medical devices, employing 85,000 people around the world, with annual revenues around $30 billion. In Israel, the company employs 800 people in Yokneam, Jerusalem, Herzliya and Petach Tikva. Medtronic’s expanded activities in Israel will focus on developing imaging systems for laparoscopic surgery.

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