An article appeared in the UK’s Sunday Times (1), last week, looking at the successful and rapid roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine in Israel. More than 11% of the country had received the jab within the first two weeks, putting them ahead of all other countries.
This laser focused organisation, desire to continually improve medical services and entrepreneurial spirit has enabled the country to become a significant hub for scientific innovation and research. The combination of outstanding clinical investigators in close proximity to some of the world's leading research institutions, and academia makes this an ideal environment to conduct clinical research, with 8016 studies (2) conducted to date. Other reasons to consider Israel as part of a global clinical research programme include:
1. Israel has one of the world's leading health systems, using the most innovative and digital tools for diagnosis and treatment. Israeli healthcare was ranked fifth in 2020, according to the annual Bloomberg Health-Efficiency Index.
2. The national social security system offers full patient coverage, allowing competitive costs for medical procedures as part of the study protocol.
3. Israel’s population is a melting pot of different ethnic groups– providing the possibility of verifying the different effects a medical product can have on various patient populations.
4. Israel is a small country with many medical centers. The short distance between the sites allows accessibility, effective time management, and flexibility in scheduling monitoring visits, issue resolution, and supply of clinical trial materials.
5. Israel’s small and “cozy” nature also allows the CROs to form a close working relationship with the investigators, resulting in smoothly conducted trials with high-quality data and high performance within timeframes.
6. Trusted relationships between the physicians and the patients result in high patient recruitment and retention rate in all therapeutic areas.
7. The Israeli medical institutions and MOH are cooperative in working towards a continuous and consistent improvement in all regulatory aspects of the clinical trial approval process, striving for the shortest possible approval timelines.
With this in mind, would you like to consider including Israel in your next study? Pharma Clinical, a well-established local CRO with over 30 years experience of helping Pharma set up their programmes, can support you.
(1) Vaccine success in a small country: What could we learn from Israel? Anshel Pfeffer Sunday Times January 3rd
(2) Clinical trial. Gov accessed on 6th January 2021