Gene therapy cures patients in a single treatment, saving lives and providing unprecedent quality of life. Inspired by recent progress in the field, we are devoted to bringing this technology to patients in need and to significantly reducing the burden of debilitating diseases
Lentiviral vector-based genetic modification of blood stem cells has shown unparalleled success in clinical trials over the past 13 years. All tested products have demonstrated high efficacy and safety profiles in hundreds of patients in over 10 different diseases. Based on this success record, several products based on this life-changing technology have recently received regulatory approvals both in Europe and the US and are now curing patients. Lentiviral vector-based gene therapy is gaining trust and attracting massive interest by the entire healthcare system.
Our strong team of cell- and gene-therapy experts and global network of partners are driven by the mission to eliminate the suffering of patients with rare as well as common diseases worldwide.
Noga Baumatz was a sweet, beautiful girl with a magnetic smile who suffered from an ultra-rare congenital genetic disorder called Hoyeraal Hreidarsson Syndrome (HHS). This illness affects many organs, including the immune system, and leads to early childhood death.
When Dr. Noam Diamant, a close friend of Noga’s father, Noam Baumatz, and a passionate scientist realized the medical institution had nothing to offer the Baumatz family, he proposed to independently develop a gene therapy to save Noga’s life.
In June 2018, when Noga was 2 years old, Noam and Noam started to develop a dedicated therapy for HHS. Sadly, in January 2019, Noga was hospitalized due to a viral infection, which she did not survive.
At that time, Dr. Liron Elkouby was working with lentiviruses at Enlivex, a leading Israeli cell therapy company. When Liron heard about Noga’s story, she reached out to Noam and Noam, and the three met and decided to jointly found Noga Therapeutics in Noga’s memory.
With an initial investment from LONZA, a global cell & gene therapy company, Noga Therapeutics was established in January 2020.
Noga, who was a true fighter, continues to inspire us and strengthen our commitment to bringing hope to patients everywhere in her name.
Sefi is a 22-year entrepreneur who founded a Nasdaq-listed company. He has a proven track record of assembling exceptional teams and building technology ahead of its time.
Sefi founded HUB Cyber Security, which reached a peak market capitalization of $350 million. He also advised Bancor, which raised $153 million and reached a peak market capitalization of $800 million.
Currently Sefi is heading the investment team in a privately owned family office.
Sefi holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Tel Aviv.
Noam is a physician with 20 years of experience in the field of complementary medicine (Brighton University). He formerly headed the Chinese Medicine Unit at Sheba Hospital. Noam is the founder and CEO of the Association for Noga (Her Way), which develops advanced therapies for ultra-rare diseases.
Liron brings many years of experience in cell- and gene-therapy translation. Prior to joining NOGA Therapeutics, Liron headed the discovery and the early-phase development of oncology at Enlivex Therapeutics. Prior to that, Liron led the hemophilia A program (currently in phase III) at Spark Therapeutics, USA. Liron holds a PhD from and conducted postdoctoral research at the Technion.
Noam previously co-founded Emendo Biotherapeutics, a leading CRISPR company that was acquired by Anges, Japan, in 2020, for $295M. As an expert on intellectual property strategies at Ingenium IP, Noam advised dozens of biomed companies on building their IP-business strategy. Noam holds a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in the field of DNA damage repair.
Dr. Yeal Weiss is currently CEO of Mahzi Therapeutics, a company focused on the development of therapies for ultra-rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Weiss completed her MD at Hadassah Medical School at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She has over 20 years of industry experience in medical/clinical and business development roles at Genzyme, Merck and Ultragenyx. Dr. Weiss is a member of the NIH driven Bespoke Gene Therapy (BCTG) consortium, ASGCT translational committee, N=1 collaborative and is a 2022 Termeer Fellow. Board member/advisor to ADNP and FOXG1 foundations.
Anat Naschitz is a lifescience investor and entrepreneur, with 27 years of experience across biotech, pharma, digital health and medical devices.
Anat co-founded and co-led OrbiMed Israel, an Israel focused VC fund and part of the leading, $20bn global healthcare investment firm, and was previously with Apax, the €60bn private equity firm, where she started her investment career. Previously Anat was an Associate Partner with McKinsey in London, where she advised the world’s preeminent pharmaceutical companies on strategy, acquisitions and spinouts.
Throughout her career Anat has founded companies and nurtured them through success. Examples include 89bio (Nasdaq:ETNB), developing a likely best in class therapeutic for NASH, which she co-founded and spun out of Teva, taking it public on Nasdaq 18 months post creation, currently trading at $1bn; Sobi, which evolved out of a Pharmacia spinout and currently trading at $7.4bn; and many others.
Currently, Anat is co-founder and CEO of 9xchange, a biopharma marketplace, creating transparency and enabling the ecosystem to monetize pipelines and discover assets whose availability was unknown, through a seamless, initially anonymous, AI-driven process.
Anat earned her MBA at Insead in France and her LLB at Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Eytan Abraham heads Resilience cell, gene and nucleic acids Franchises. Dr. Abraham holds a Ph.D. in developmental and molecular biology from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, and a post-doctorate in cell-therapy and tissue engineering from the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Abraham is an experienced scientist and business leader with expertise in basic and applied biological and cell therapy R&D as well as in management, technology, and commercialization.
Mr. Adam Brian heads Lonza Personalized Medicine, which focuses on developing and bringing to market tools that enable research and development, scale out, and commercialization of patient scale cell therapies, with an emphasis on decentralized and point of care manufacturing. Mr. Brian is a results-oriented leader with extensive experience in the life science and medical device industries. Proven track record of increasing revenue, improving operations, and building and leading high-performing teams.
