KidneyCure Ltd, a biotech company developing a novel cell-therapy technology for treating advanced chronic kidney disease, is expanding its circle of investors. The comapny has completed a round of financing from Aurum Ventures, a venture capital firm, and Direct Insurance Financial Investments.
Tel Aviv, Israel, KidneyCure Ltd, a biotech company developing a novel cell-therapy technology for treating advanced chronic kidney disease, is expanding its circle of investors. The comapny has completed a round of financing from Aurum Ventures, a venture capital firm, and Direct Insurance Financial Investments. The new investors join KidneyCure's strong team of existing investors including Jonathan Leitersdorf, Prof. John Finberg and Gilad Altshuler Holdings. The investment from Aurum Ventures and Direct Insurance brings the total amount raised by KidneyCure to $4 million. Aurum provides KidneyCure and its board with a strong professional track record and knowledge of the relevant industry.
KidneyCure is developing cell-based personalized medicine therapy designed to compensate for renal cell depletion by administrating autologous, revitalized renal progenitor cells. Upon administration, these cells are expected to significantly improve kidney function, prevent the formation of fibrotic renal tissue and delay the progression of the disease. The major benefit is expected to be a substantial delay in the need for dialyses and kidney transplantation.
KidneyCure's team is led by two prominent figures in Israel's biomedical sector: CEO Dr. Alon Yaar and Chief Scientific and Medical Advisor Prof. Benjamin Dekel.
Dr. Yaar is a serial entrepreneur, who served as founder and former CEO at Neuroderm, an Israeli pharmaceutical company acquired by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma in 2017 for $1.1 billion. Prof. Dekel is a world-renowned authority in Nephrology, human renal progenitor cells and renal regenerative medicine.
Since joining the company as CEO in April 2018, Dr. Yaar has intensified the KidneyCure’s momentum by formulating a new business and regulatory strategy to advance the company towards clinical trials.
“The new funds from Aurum and Direct Insurance will enable us to accelerate our R&D process and meet the goal of completing all regulatory requirements to bring us to the start of clinical trials. KidneyCure represents a clear investment opportunity since it offers a novel regenerative medicine technology for treating advanced stages of chronic renal disease that currently have no treatment or cure,” says KidneyCure CEO Dr. Alon Yaar.
KidneyCure’s unique therapeutic approach is expected to significantly delay the need for dialysis and kidney transplantation and to give millions of patients the opportunity to live longer and to have far greater quality of life. The breakthrough research previously conducted at Prof. Dekel’s labs in the Sheba Medical Center in Israel served as the scientific basis for the therapy now under development by the company.
About Aurum
Aurum Ventures MKI is the technology investment arm of Morris Kahn, a prominent businessman, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Morris Kahn is one of the founders of the Aurec Group, a leading provider in the communications, media and information fields in Israel and around the world.
Aurum Ventures provides financing and other managerial resources to healthcare companies in all stages of development. Aurum Ventures’ focus is on breakthrough technologies in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health. Aurum has an extensive track record of investing in novel ventures and of partnering with portfolio companies to ensure suitable business, regulatory and clinical strategy, as well as timely execution. Aurum invests either on its own or co-invests with other partners in both early and late stage companies with a focus on Israeli based companies.
About Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is reaching epidemic proportions worldwide, with an estimated 200 million people suffering from it.[i] In the US alone there are an estimated 30 million people who have CKD and more than 120,000 individuals annually develop end-stage renal disease (or CKD stage 5).i At present some 650,000 patients in the US and more than 3 million worldwide are diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).[ii]Nearly 90% of all ESRD patients are put on hemodialysis, at an average annual cost of over $80,000 per patient.[iii] In the US, around 590,000 patients receive dialysis treatment[iv] and well over 200,000 are living with a kidney transplant.[v] Total annual Medicare spending on patients with CKD exceeds $64 billion, which is equivalent to 20% of Medicare’s total annual budget. Despite the huge amount of funds allocated for treatment, the incidence of ESRD in the US and in other countries is increasing rapidly as a result of the aging population.
For further details: Alon Mlievski, +972-50-4438778
Meirovitch Public Relations, tel. +972-77-2129988
1
[i] Addressing the Global Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease Through Clinical and Translational Research,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
[ii] U.S. Renal Data System, USRDS 2013 Annual Data Report: Atlas of End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD, 2014.
[iii] Savings Opportunity from Improved CKD Care Management, Liu et al, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 29:ccc–ccc, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.
[iv] 2017 USRDS Annual Data Report, https://www.usrds.org/2017/
[v] National Kidney Foundation, https://www.kidney.org/news/
