James Black (00:03):
Welcome back to The Exchange for Entrepreneurs Podcast. I'm your host, James Black. This week, we go on a tour of Israel. Now, I've been there a few times in my career, and what we are offering today is a snapshot of the entrepreneurs and technology that are driving innovative solutions in health tech, cannabis, life sciences, and food tech. You'll hear from my colleagues, Mark Francis and Rob Cooke on this recording. We've broken this week's show into two distinct parts. First is an intro to VVT Medical and Concenter BioPharma, both led by Erez Tetro and Dror Chevion respectively. After their introduction, they sit down with Mark to discuss their motivations for their businesses and the hard lessons learned, bringing their visions to market. After that, we go rapid fire with Rob Cooke. We'll introduce you to several more innovators and executives from the Israeli tech space, some of whom are firmly standing at the intersection of public markets and entrepreneurship. It's a fascinating cross-section on this week's show, and we look forward to sharing further adventures from Israel on this program. Thank you for listening, and please enjoy the show.
Erez Tetro (01:07):
Hello, everybody. My name is Erez Tetro. I'm the CEO of VVT Medical. I've been with the healthcare industry for the past 18 years, most of my years with J&J. I'm happy to present VVT Medical for you today. VVT Medical is a medical devices company that took on a big mission, and that's to address one of the largest problems in healthcare today and that's varicose veins. It's a very common problem. More than 260 million people around the world suffer from it. Actually, it's estimated that 50% out of all age 50 and above will suffer from some severity of this condition. It could be on the lighter severity, a cosmetic and aesthetic issue, which is a huge market on its own, and of course, with higher severities and medical indications, it could be a real severe issue where a patient can have even skin ulcers that could be sometimes even life-threatening.
Erez Tetro (02:04):
The market is huge. It's estimated that probably 50% of all age 50 and above will suffer from some severity of this condition. On the lighter severity, it's more of a aesthetic and cosmetic issue, and higher severity is more complicated to treat. We have a range of products to address both of those, let's say categories. Our solution is painless. It doesn't require any downtime. It doesn't require any prolonged recovery. Usually, we just call it a lunch break procedure where a patient can come to during his lunch break, talk to the doctor, sit down with him, the doctor will examine his leg and then he will do the treatment. The treatment is without any anesthesia, doesn't require any prolonged recovery, and after half an hour, the results are there, immediate, painless, very, very safe, and the patient goes home.
Erez Tetro (03:01):
The way we do it is propriety technology to us that we developed and we have started selling all across Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. We are very close to obtain our FDA clearance for our first product. We're inviting you to ask any questions that you may have. Thank you very much.
Rob Cooke (03:26):
I'm Rob Cooke. I'm here with the CSE in Tel Aviv. I've just met Dror Chevion from Concenter BioPharma, who is an entrepreneur, innovator, CEO of the company and its founder. Why did you come here today?
Dror Chevion (03:43):
Well, we are looking at the option of taking the company public, and one of the options of course, is Canada.
Rob Cooke (03:50):
Great.
Dror Chevion (03:51):
We came to meet the people and see what we can learn and establish the connections to move forward.
Rob Cooke (03:58):
What does Concenter BioPharma specialize in?
Dror Chevion (04:01):
Well, we are developing drugs for type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is one of the major problems in the world today with over 580 million people suffering from this disease. Surprisingly or not, all of the drugs on the market today for type 2 diabetes are actually not drugs for type 2 diabetes. They are drugs for treating either the symptoms or the complications of the disease and not the core problem of the disease.
Rob Cooke (04:26):
Uh-huh.
Dror Chevion (04:27):
What is the core problem of type 2 diabetes? Insulin resistance, which keeps on rising and rising as time goes by. Usually, patients start off with one drug and then they added another drug and another one, and then they move on to injectables and eventually even take insulin, which shows you that all the drugs actually don't work because the patient situation gets worse and worse. Our drug has shown that it can lower insulin resistance and restore insulin resistance levels to normal, almost 100% of normal. So this is a breakthrough. There's no other drug with this mechanism of action and with these results. We did a lot of preclinical work. We went to FDA. We had a pre-IND. We submitted an IND. We got some comments. We raised money twice already through crowdfunded platform here in Israel called PipelBiz. Now we are in our second clinical trial, testing our final drug, which is an oral pill that you will take once a day.
Rob Cooke (05:32):
Yes.
Dror Chevion (05:32):
It will lower your insulin resistance back to normal, and thereby, it will solve the problem of diabetes and will stop all of the other complications which are even worse than diabetes itself.
Rob Cooke (05:44):
That sounds wonderful.
Dror Chevion (05:45):
It is really a breakthrough on a global scale and we have, for all practical purposes, an unlimited market of hundreds of millions of people with no real drug for treating their disease today.
Rob Cooke (05:57):
Yes.
Dror Chevion (05:59):
We think we have something that is very important to do, humanity in general to, of course, health systems around the world which cannot raise the money to deal with this disease which is costing hundreds of billions all over the world. We are in need of some more money in order to conduct the clinical trials and further the drug through the regulatory pathway and take it to market as soon as possible.
Rob Cooke (06:31):
We look forward to that.
Dror Chevion (06:33):
Thank you.
Mark Francis (06:35):
Mark Francis with Canadian Securities Exchange here in Tel Aviv with two exciting medical device and technology companies. We're very pleased to have them with us today. So tell us, Dror, what was your first aha moment and what did you do immediately after?
Dror Chevion (06:55):
Well, actually, I think that our success is not one aha moment, but many small aha moments. Every time we do a trial, whether it's preclinical or clinical, and you see the results and you say, wow, it's unbelievable that we show these great results unmatched by any other technology, any other drug that's out there. Then we want to bring our drug to market the next day because we know it's going to drastically change for the better the lives of hundreds of millions of people. So we have these small moments where we say, wow, another small win, another vote of confidence, another step forward in raising money, whether it's a trial, whether it's getting an approval or winning a prize for the drug or for the company or for the people in the company. Each of those little step, a little aha moment driving us forward and leading us towards our goal of reaching the market and helping hundreds of millions of people cope with this disease.
Mark Francis (08:11):
What was the genesis of coming up with that molecule? How did that occur?
Dror Chevion (08:16):
Well, the molecule basically was discovered by a group of scientists at the Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical Center. The leading scientist was my father, Professor Mottie Chevion. They were looking for different types of cures for inflammation. They found this type of combination or complex of two molecules. One of them a chelator and the other, a metal ion. Eventually, after trying different types of combinations on different types of diseases, they found out that a specific combination, which I mentioned, a chelator and a zinc ion are this combination. This complex is very potent, efficacious, and safe for treating type 2 diabetes. That's how it started a long time ago, by the way, at the Hebrew University. We started in 2015 by taking the IP from the university technology transfer unit and then working on preparing all of this for the company, which was actually set up in 2019. But four years before, we were already working.
Mark Francis (09:36):
Very good. Erez, how did your technology start?
Erez Tetro (09:41):
Well, it started really by looking into what kind of solution we can bring that doesn't require staying in the operating room. How can we make it more accessible into private vein clinics, outpatient clinics? The idea was to find a way to have it done in a normal setting, in a doctor's room. We found how we can do it by really addressing a very simple way of dealing with the issue. Most of the problem was dealing with the blood inside the veins. The idea was to really eliminate the blood from the vein that really allowed us to do it in much more simple settings.
Mark Francis (10:24):
So you had the concept. You started to work on it. Tell us about a mistake that you and the team made and what you did to fix it.
Erez Tetro (10:33):
I think one of the later things that we understood that was a mistake is that we probably came to the market too soon. We introduced a very advanced technology to a market that wasn't really ready for it. We should have worked more on the awareness and to the idea of having this kind of solution where it was a bit premature. Today, I can say that, let's say most of the industry and the relevant specialties are understanding that this is really the future, but back then, it was a bit too early.
Mark Francis (11:13):
And Dror, you?
Dror Chevion (11:16):
Mistake?
Mark Francis (11:17):
Yes.
Dror Chevion (11:22):
Yeah. I think I have a lot of small mistakes here and there that we made. I think one of them was that we thought that working with subcontractors, once you give them a job and it's very well-defined, it will be done. I think we learned very quickly that even though you have very good definitions and scope of work and everything is set and there's a time and a budget, usually, there are unforeseen troubles. I think the real thing you need to be aware of is that there are problems. You need to find them very quickly and to fix them even quicker and then you can move on.
Mark Francis (11:59):
Right. So you've raised the issue, Dror, of clinical trials, and I know each of you have had to go through clinical trial processes. Dror, you probably have a longer clinical trial process to go through because it's a drug, but tell us about the challenges within clinical trials and what you've learned from that process.
Dror Chevion (12:19):
Well, we actually went to FDA early on in the process of developing the drug in order to get their preapproval for regulatory pathway called 505(b)(2), which is normally used for different types of drugs, but in our case, there are special reasons why they gave us this conditional approval. This makes for a shorter clinical trial time and small number of patients per trial. We don't have the usual eight to 15 years clinical trials. Usually in 505(b)(2), clinical trials take between two to five years and we think in three years, we can finish that. But still, clinical trials are complicated, from getting the approval from the hospital and the internal review board in the hospital or in the Ministry of Health here in Israel, finding the patients and conducting the trial, all complicated trials with a lot of potential for mistakes. You have to work on it.
Mark Francis (13:35):
Right. And you, Erez?
Erez Tetro (13:40):
Besides all the things Dror mentioned that we of course also encountered, what we really saw as a challenge is to really explain something that never done before to patients coming into the clinic and trying to let them understand why this could be even better for them than the existing treatments. We were able to recruit the patients and do the study we did for the European approval and the result was good. When we approach the FDA in our first submission meetings, they immediately accepted our clinical data thanks to the successful procedure we did with the European Union. So that's our case.
Mark Francis (14:28):
Okay. Very good. Dror, what do you see as your biggest challenge going forward?
Dror Chevion (14:37):
Well, I think the challenge is always raising money that will enable you to do what you think is the right way to do things. You can raise a small amounts of money each time for a very small improvement or a step forward and then things take longer and you lose momentum. You can raise a lot of money, but you have to persuade the people giving you that money that it's the right thing to do. I think this is the biggest challenge because everything else is not simple, but it's doable once you have the resources.
Mark Francis (15:14):
Okay. Erez.
Erez Tetro (15:17):
In our case, it would be to raise awareness. Study in the US showed that from the entire potential of people, which is millions over millions, only 5% seek for treatment and only 2% eventually undergo treatments. For us, creating a bigger pool of patients and enrolling them into our solution, that would be really the challenge that we're welcoming of course, but that would be our challenge to really raise the awareness on how easy, safe, and fast this treatment could be done.
Mark Francis (15:56):
Very good. What is your next milestone?
Erez Tetro (16:00):
My next milestone is receiving the 510(K) FDA approval, which is very close. We're working on it for more than two years now with pre-submission meetings with the FDA, constant communication with them, and now we are in the final stages of the submission. Due to the fact that we are already in a very long process with them, we believe that we will have a fairly smooth submission and we're hoping to receive the 510(K) somewhere in the first quarter of 2023.
Mark Francis (16:34):
Okay. And Dror, you, your next milestone.
Dror Chevion (16:38):
Well, there's not one. There are several. On the regulatory side, we need to go back to FDA with updated IND package. On the production side, we need to finalize the production of our oral formulation drug. On the preclinical tox studies, we need to add some results there and conclude the CMC package for FDA. And of course, underlying or encompassing all of that is the fundraising that we still need to work on in order to be able to do all of these things simultaneously.
Rob Cooke (17:21):
Hi, I'm Rob Cooke, I'm with the CSE. I'm here in Tel Aviv with Jonathan Ben-Cnaan. Jonathan is one of the co-founders of a very unique Canadian-Israeli company that's called Atlas Global Brands. Please, Jonathan, tell us what you are doing with this company.
Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (17:40):
Well, Rob, what we're doing is really something unique. We will be the only Canadian domiciled cannabis company who has more than 50% of its revenue coming from international markets. We will be in seven international markets from the get-go, Israel, Canada, Australia, and four European markets. In addition, we have a management team of people that have done it before, have been executives in rapid growth, global companies reaching turnover of $650 million. We will have the full value chain from cultivation in Canada, manufacturing in Canada, distribution in Israel up to the retail level. We will own pharmacies in Israel, cannabis-licensed pharmacies, and we will have distribution in other countries as well. So we have the full value chain,-
Rob Cooke (18:33):
Complete vertical integration.
Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (18:35):
... complete vertical integration with the best cultivators in Israel, sorry, in Canada, and the best distribution in Israel.
Rob Cooke (18:42):
Wonderful. Okay. How long has this been in the works?
Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (18:47):
Well, some of the companies that our group is comprised of have been around for five to seven years, but the initiative to bring all of us together has been ongoing now for a year.
Rob Cooke (18:58):
Okay. Well, it sounds like a great adventure.
Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (19:02):
Yes.
Rob Cooke (19:02):
Really.
Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (19:03):
Yes. It's been quite a challenge.
Rob Cooke (19:04):
All right. Well, thank you for telling us about it. I'm pleased to be meeting with Eli Ben Arush, who's the co-founder and the CEO of StickIt, which is another innovation from Israel. Eli, please tell us, what is it about StickIt?
Eli Ben Arush (19:24):
Oh, well, StickIt is innovation, a Israeli startup that we develop cannabis sticks. Anyone that want to have a smoke and you want to have a regular procedures of the [inaudible 00:19:39] inside, people will find StickIt is the great answer.
Rob Cooke (19:43):
So it's a stick?
Eli Ben Arush (19:43):
It's a stick [inaudible 00:19:44].
Rob Cooke (19:44):
It's a stick.
Eli Ben Arush (19:46):
It's a stick. You go inside directly to the pre-rolled or tobacco cigarette, and then you have upgrade your smoker.
Rob Cooke (19:54):
Okay. All right. How long has this been in development?
Eli Ben Arush (19:59):
Oh, StickIt is established 2019.
Rob Cooke (20:01):
Yes.
Eli Ben Arush (20:02):
We are pending our patent. We start to develop R&D. We are creating now the first bench in America these days. We did it last year in Europe. We start to sell, go to the market, and we are having about five or six manufacturers negotiate in Thailand, Mongolia, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.
Rob Cooke (20:32):
So almost all over the world already?
Eli Ben Arush (20:35):
Yes. The business structure is very, very good for the joint venture. We're looking for each one of these countries another joint venture. We like to have partners. We're going to bring the technology and then the local company will sell, distribute sole agreement to the dispensaries or shops or convenience shops.
Rob Cooke (20:55):
Right. So just like Coca-Cola, you could be all over the world.
Eli Ben Arush (20:58):
Yeah, and eventually, think about it. In five years, we're going to sit around party, like a birthday party, whatever, and then we can ask each other, "You want to smoke?" You don't need to roll. You don't need to have the flower. You just take the stick, put it inside, then you have a joint ready.
Rob Cooke (21:17):
Okay. Thanks very much.
Eli Ben Arush (21:19):
Thank you.
Rob Cooke (21:19):
Very interesting.
Eli Ben Arush (21:20):
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Rob Cooke (21:23):
I am talking today with the CEO of Beyond Oil, Tamir Gedo. Tamir, nice to see you again.
Tamir Gedo (21:31):
Nice to see you.
Rob Cooke (21:33):
Why is Beyond Oil so successful?
Tamir Gedo (21:36):
Beyond Oil is so successful because we invented the formulation, which is patented all over the world. This product can extend the life of the oil by 400%. Restaurants like McDonald's and KFC, which needs to change their oil every two or three days, now can change it every 14 days and that reduce the cost of those restaurants by 400%. The product is much more healthy and helps the environment.
Rob Cooke (22:10):
Wow. Cost-saving, healthier, better for the environment.
Tamir Gedo (22:15):
Yes.
Rob Cooke (22:16):
It's a triple win.
Tamir Gedo (22:17):
What can someone expect more than that?
Rob Cooke (22:20):
Good. That's good and in an industry that's so old with the product that's been in use for so long and now you've done something quite different to it.
Tamir Gedo (22:31):
Yes, correct. This industry didn't show much innovation in the last couple of decades, and this is bringing high tech in the food business or food tech into a low tech industry, which is a very solid industry and it's one of the most important one in the business because we are dealing with food. The company doesn't compromise on health and security. We've got FDA approval. We've got Health Canada approval, Israeli Ministry of Health approval. We are starting to sell now in Israeli restaurants all over the country, in four big chains in the country, and very soon, we are going to start selling in Canada and the United States.
Rob Cooke (23:19):
That's a great story. Thank you, Tamir.
Tamir Gedo (23:21):
Thank you very much.
Rob Cooke (23:23):
I'm pleased to introduce Yoav Bar Joseph, who is the CEO and the founder of Cannibble that has been listed on the CSE since, how long have you been listed?
Yoav Bar Joseph (23:33):
Since March last year, 2021, sorry, 2022, this year.
Rob Cooke (23:39):
That's right, 2022.
Yoav Bar Joseph (23:39):
We are new at the CSE. Thank you Rob for having me here. Great to see you in Israel and meet you.
Rob Cooke (23:51):
Good to be here. It was great to have Cannibble on CSE. Why is Cannibble been so successful as a company?
Yoav Bar Joseph (24:00):
Well, Cannibble is a food company. We are developing food product enhanced with the ingredients from the hemp plant.
Rob Cooke (24:09):
Right.
Yoav Bar Joseph (24:10):
We're doing shakes and cake mixes infused with the hemp protein and hemp seed ingredients, which are new and innovative products in the market, especially for the US market.
Rob Cooke (24:26):
Okay. A lot of people think when they think hemp and you're infusing food with a hemp product, they're thinking CBD. Are you talking about hemp proteins, hemp seeds?
Yoav Bar Joseph (24:37):
Yeah. Hemp seeds and hemp protein are considered to be a super food. It's very innovative ingredients. You can do a lot of things with [inaudible 00:24:50] next revolution of protein.
Rob Cooke (24:58):
Next revolution of protein?
Yoav Bar Joseph (24:58):
Yeah.
Rob Cooke (25:02):
That sounds great. Okay. I'm Rob Cooke. I'm with the CSE. I am here in Tel Aviv today with Iris Bincovich, who is the CEO of Innocan Pharma, which was the first Israeli company [inaudible 00:25:13] CSE. Iris, great to see you.
Iris Bincovich (25:12):
Great to see you.
Rob Cooke (25:12):
Why is Innocan such a successful company?
Iris Bincovich (25:13):
I think it's all about teamwork, [inaudible 00:25:28] to the milestone of the company, how it works, a lot of efforts, innovation. Innocan is innovation in cannabis. We try to be innovative in everything we do and [inaudible 00:25:43] really results to our investors. I met someone just a few months ago and he said, "I met you three years ago just when you got listed. Eventually, we saw that everything you promised, you deliver." So we are really trying to bring innovation. Our liposome, the CBD is now in those clinical trials and we see the benefits. This is only the first step [inaudible 00:26:14], providing wellness to all.
Rob Cooke (26:19):
Clinical trials is a big step. It's a big milestone for the company.
Iris Bincovich (26:27):
Yes. Exactly.
Rob Cooke (26:27):
I bet you're really proud of that.
Iris Bincovich (26:27):
I'm proud, yeah. It's a great place to be, so let's continue.
Rob Cooke (26:28):
Right.
James Black (26:33):
Thank you again for listening to The Exchange for Entrepreneurs podcast, a proud presentation from CNSX Markets Inc, operator of the Canadian Securities Exchange. As a reminder, the viewpoints on this show do not reflect those of the exchange and are solely those of the guests and do not constitute investment advice. For more information about the exchange, its services and listed companies, please visit www.thecse.com. Until the next show. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to hit the like or subscribe button on your favorite listen platform. Thank you so much.