Israel has been ranked in the top 10 on the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index. Israel’s precise place in the 2019 top 10 list has yet to be disclosed. The final results are slated to be unveiled on Wednesday at a special event the WIPO will be hosting in New Delhi.
Israel has been climbing the U.N. index for the past few years. In 2016, it was ranked 21st in innovation. In 2017, it jumped to 17th. In 2018, Israel made it to 11th.
This year’s WIPO event will focus on innovation in the healthcare field. Israel is a very well established hub for innovations and inventions, in almost every part of medicine.
The woman’s health arena (FemTech), is one of the upcoming hot topics, expected to exceed $50 billion in 2025.
An example of innovation in this domain was given Tuesday in Brussels by Dr. Elan Ziv, CEO and Medical Director of ConTIPI Medical, an Israeli company based in Caesarea. ConTIPI develops non-invasive and disposable vaginal devices for various pelvic floor dysfunctions in women.
Pelvic floor dysfunctions include many conditions in women, but the most prevalent of them are stress urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and fecal incontinence.
Over 50% of the women worldwide have at least one of the 3 disorders. In the case of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), it estimated that there are around 135 million women globally with this condition, ~28% in Europe. The number of affected women is huge, surgery is only partially satisfactory due to high rate of adverse events, and the current non-invasive mode of management is by using a pessary – a reusable only rubber/silicone body which is inserted in most cases by a doctor into the vagina for 3 months, then taken out, cleaned and reinserted for another 3 months – and so for many years. This is accompanied by pain,discomfort,discharge, infections and inability to have intercourse.
“It’s a topic that has become a taboo for many women,” said Dr. Ziv, who came to Brussels – seat of the Eu institutions- to bring awareness of this problem. “If you think about it, suffering from any of these forms of incontinence is difficult to talk about. And not only that, organ prolapse affects the sexual lives of so many women.”
”There has been no innovation in this domain for the last 23 years, he added.
A urogynecologist, Dr Ziv presented in Brussels – seat of the EU institutions- a revolutionary disposable vaginal device that improves quality of life for millions of women affected with Pelvic Organ Prolapse. The device developed by ConTIPI Medical brings a completely novel non-surgical and disposable management option.
The device is inserted in small dimensions within an applicator into the vagina by the user herself (not a medical practitioner) at home or wherever she wants (not at the clinic). The device may be used for up to 7 days, after which the user puls a string and the device shrinks back to small dimensions and is discarded together with the applicator.
‘’This is a complete out-of-the-box way of thinking, unknown to the medical arena,’’ Dr Ziv explained.
This device for POP is ready for the European market and has a CE Mark and a 510 (k) clearance from FDA for marketing in the US.
In the US, the current solution for POP –the pessary– has a cost per patient of USD 420 (EUR 377) to the national health service. For ConTIPI’s new product, Dr. Ziv estimates that the cost of the device will be the same, USD 420, considering a supply of 120 devices a year per patient. “That’s about USD 3.50 (EUR 3.14) per device,” he said.
The first device developed by the Israeli medical company, for stress urinary incontinence in women, was acquired by Kimberly Clark Worldwide and is already on shelves in North America.
