More than 250 members of Israel’s life sciences industry have signed a petition opposing the proposed merger of the Israeli life sciences organization, ILSI, with its high tech counterpart.
“The two industries have separate needs and merging the two will seriously harm the life sciences industry,” says Yossi Bornstein, one of the petition initiators.
Bornstein, who was one of the founders of ILSI, points out that he resigned from the organization a year ago in order to protest the way that ILSI is being managed.
ILSI is chaired by Ruth Alon of the Pitango venture capital group. According to the petition organizers, the merger will concentrate all of the representative power of the industry in the hands of venture capitalists and lead to government and investors favoring the high tech industry.
In comments posted on the internet petition page industry members express in strong terms the need for the life sciences industry to have independent representation in negotiating with the government, especially the grant-giving Office of the Chief Scientist.
“There is a very different time-to-market paradigm in the life sciences industry, ” says Bornstein and others, noting the on-going battle biomed industry members face in competing against other industries which operate under faster timelines.
Many of the petitioners also note irregularities in the way ILSI has been managed in recent years, citing a lack of open elections.
It could be however that the petition is happening too late. ILSI has scheduled a meeting for Nov. 22 in order to vote on the proposed merger. “As the number of ILSI members has dwindled in recent years, it could be that the only ones who attend will be those who are aligned with the management,” observes Bornstein.
If the merger takes place many industry observers expect a new organization to be founded.
“We are too small a country to have two organizations competing with each other in the same industry,” says Bornstein who opposes founding a new organization.
He and the other petitioners are clear on what they want: a single independent organization representing the life sciences, with transparent and regular elections – and without undue influence by a single venture capital group.