By Gali Weinreb

Capital Point Ltd. (TASE:CPTP), which operates the Meytag Technology Incubator and Ofakim Hi-Tech Ventures Ltd. incubators announced last week that Meytag incubator company DermiPsor had received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin Phase II clinical trials for its psoriasis drug. The trial is due to commence in the first quarter of 2007 on 170 patients at a number of key medical centers across Europe.

DermiPsor was co-founded in 2004 by Dr. Avikam Harel and Dr. Olga Bloch. The company’s CEO is Dr. Zeev Even-Chen, formerly VP, regulatory affairs & clinical research at Notal Vision Ltd. DermiPsor has developed a non-steroidal ointment containing vitamin B and vitamin D for the treatment of psoriasis. The company said that its Phase I safety trials had produced satisfactory results, indicating that its ointment was safer that steroid-based products.


DemiPsor has raised NIS 4.2 million to date from Capital Point (39%), entrepreneurs (38%) and private investors (23%), among them Empire Online founder Noam Lanir, and Packard Bell founder Benny Alagem. The company previously told “Globes” that it would require no more than $20 million in finance to continue the process towards licensing by the FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMEA).