Presidential Recognition

for SteadyMed’s Innovation

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What tidings does SteadyMed bring to the market?

What is so innovative/unique about your solution?

SteadyMed is bringing a pill's ease-of-use to the world of injectable drugs. Many new drugs for chronic patients are injectables and they require a new generation of simple infusion devices to deliver them in a convenient, controlled, yet user-friendly manner at home. SteadyMed's mission is to address this market by developing the optimal "package" for such drugs and becoming the industry standard for their delivery.

What is your competitive advantage?

SteadyMed has developed a novel technology platform which enables us to manufacture the lowest-cost, smallest, fully-disposable and very effective patch-type pump (the PatchPumpä). Other companies in the field develop more expensive, bulky products, which are either not simple-to-use or not disposable. In addition, the PatchPumpä is the only small pump capable of delivering viscous drugs such as many of the new biological drugs.

Steady Med was chosen as one of the 60 most promising ventures in Israel in the Tomorrow Conference organized by Israeli president Shimon Peres. What kind of feedback did you receive?

It was an honor to be chosen as one of 60 leading future-oriented ventures in Israel. We received very positive feedback from high-tech industry decision makers invited to the conference. However, the strongest and most positive feedback we received was from senior personnel at the major medical device and drug companies in the US and Japan. We receive a constant stream of visitors from these companies, and are already discussing cooperation and joint developments with several of them.

How soon do you think the product will hit the market? What's missing for you to get there?

As the product will be distributed by various drug and device companies with which we will collaborate, the major decisions regarding the product's launch will be made by them. Nevertheless, SteadyMed does have a plan to have its technology platform ramped up to initial production within about one year, enabling clinical trials by our partners with properly engineered devices produced in small numbers.

How did you decide to brand SteadyMed?

SteadyMedä – providing a steady flow despite changing external conditions, PatchPumpä - emphasizing the extent to which our product really does have the form factor of a patch rather than the bulky products sold today, ECellä – making it clear that our technology platform includes an expanding battery cell which develops high pressure and can therefore serve to deliver viscous drugs such as therapeutic antibodies.

Where do you wish SteadyMed to be by 2010?

Your choice of date, 2010, is an interesting one. Current market forecasts predict that the present $50B market for injectable drugs will be dramatically expanded by $30B of new biological drugs. My hope and expectation for 2010 is that during this dramatic expansion, SteadyMed's PatchPumpä would be firmly positioned in a central role in this expanding market and will start to be recognized as the industry standard for ambulatory products.

What makes SteadyMed unique as a working environment?

Our product is a multi-disciplinary one – involving electronics, battery chemistry, mechanics and liquid flows – so that there is always much to learn and many fields to integrate. This is challenging but always interesting. At the same time, due to our contacts with drug and therapy companies, we are constantly being exposed to new delivery requirements and "fleshing out" our technology platform to meet them. It is an exhilarating development process with a strong sense of vitality as we meet real-world demands.