GREATER PHILADELPHIA, PA (February 2019)—The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the region’s pre-eminent Israel business group, has announced its selection of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. as the recipient of this year’s Life Sciences and Bio Innovation Award.
“West is in the vanguard of advancing drug delivery devices, helping to ensure quality healthcare,” said PICC President Neil A. Cooper, Executive Partner of the Philadelphia law firm, Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC. “Israeli science and technology are an integral part of West’s success story. This award recognizes that record and is a perfect expression of the core competency of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber.”
The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber presents the Life Sciences and Bio Innovation Award to a company, researcher, investor or other individual behind leading-edge solutions that lower costs and improve quality and access to healthcare. In the process, this type of achievement strengthens the deepening commercial ties between the Greater Philadelphia region and Israel.
“It is an honor to be recognized by the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, which underscores our commitment to innovation,” said Eric Resnick, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, West. “We are focused on the identification of unmet needs to drive development of new products and enabling technologies for our customers that ultimately enhance the user experience. I am proud that Israel serves as one of our regional technology hubs of excellence that brings together expertise and new ideas to create innovative packaging, systems, and devices.”
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., based in Exton, PA, is a manufacturer of packaging components and materials for injectable drugs and other healthcare products. Israel serves as one of several regional technology hubs of expertise for West along with Ireland, Germany, Singapore, and the United States. The Ra’anana, Israel office is not only a global Innovation and Technology center of excellence for Drug Delivery and Administration Devices, but also includes product development, engineering, operations, order fulfillment, and regulatory teams.
With innovation at the forefront, West’s team in Israel developed the SmartDose® drug delivery platform, which was launched with commercial success in 2016. The product is an integrated drug delivery system that adheres to the patient’s abdomen, so patients can be hands-free while self-administrating medication in accordance with their prescribed treatment.
PICC’s Life Science and Bio-Innovation Award will be presented to West at the Chamber’s Annual Gala Reception set for the Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia the evening of April 3.
Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce
For more than three decades, the mission of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce—unique in this region—has been to develop business and academic ties between Greater Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey and Delaware, and Israel. The PICC is a non-profit, non-denominational, independent organization focused on creating commercial and investment opportunities.
The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber represents the US-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) in the region. BIRD has made more than $10 million in industrial R&D grants to companies in this area. In 2016-2018 alone, the PICC facilitated five BIRD grants promoting U.S.-Israel technology ventures in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
SmartDose® is a trademark of West Pharma. Services IL, Ltd, a subsidiary of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.