A hi-tech medical cannabis incubator located in Yeruham has bagged the Israeli Government Tender.  Awarded by the Israel Innovation Authority, the tender was bestowed upon OurCrowd, Perrigo and BOL Pharma. 

Ourcrowd is Israel’s leading venture capital investor, whereas Perrigo is acknowledged as the largest non-prescription drug company on the planet and BOL Pharma is the only Israeli medical cannabis company with full CMPR accreditation. Combined, the companies will operate CanNegev with the primary goal of developing technologies suited to the medical cannabis market.

“We are especially pleased to expand the borders of the Israeli ecosystem to the other regions in the country with the opening a few months ago of the food tech incubator in Kiryat Shemona and now the establishment of the medical cannabis incubator in Yeruham,” the incubator organization announced.

Israel’s medical cannabis incubator will create employment opportunities

An abundance of new job openings are anticipated to proliferate across the southern region of Yeruham, thanks to Israel’s medical cannabis incubator. According to the Mayor of Yeruham, Tal Ohana, the incubator will “serve as an anchor for innovators from around the world.” 

“CanNegev is positive news for Yeruham. We dreamt and are now realising the vision of turning Yeruham into a research, technology and production capital for medical cannabis,” said Mayor Ohana, adding that the organization “will upgrade the activities of entrepreneurs, who are already in the process of allocation of land for the establishment of cannabis extraction plants in Yeruham.”

The founder and CEO of OurCrowd, Jon Medved, says that Israel’s medical cannabis incubator will seek out startup companies that possess innovative technologies, before priming them for success. To accomplish this, the incubator will equip them with essential tools and bolster investment opportunities to ensure they are capable of dominating the international medical cannabis market.

“The member firms of the consortium have a wealth of knowledge and experience in the medical field and in medical cannabis, and this will be placed fully at the disposal of the innovators. It should be noted that Perrigo already operates a highly sophisticated manufacturing plant in Yeruham and its familiarity with the city and the region will also contribute to the success of the project,” said Medved.

Israel’s medical cannabis incubator will be operated for five years

Based on the fine details of the tender, OurCrowd, Perrigo and BOL Pharma will operate the incubator for a total of five years. If all goes well, the duration will be extended an additional three years. A maximum of 30 startup medical cannabis companies will be accepted into the incubator for the first five years, with six startups being sought out for the initial year of operation.

Approximately NIS ₪150m ($43 million) will be invested in Israel’s medical cannabis incubator by the three companies and The Innovation Authority. The money will be used for investments, to fund the incubator’s functioning and to assist startup companies.