Medica Venture Partners


Medica III Team

Dr. Ehud Geller
Founder & Managing Partner

Dr. Ehud Geller has been active in the health care/biopharma and life science industries for over 30 years. The former president and CEO of Interpharm Laboratories, Ltd., he presided over the growth of this company from the seed stage to $18 million in revenues. Prior to that, Dr. Geller, was the president of the Pharmaceutical Division of Teva and Executive VP of the Teva Group, Israel´s largest pharmaceutical company. At Teva he led the merger of the pharmaceutical business involved in the acquisition of Ikapharm Ltd., and the strategy of Teva´s entry into the U.S. market. Earlier, Dr. Geller conducted pharmaceutical research at Wyeth Laboratories in the U.S. Dr. Geller has a B.Sc. degree in chemical engineering, an MBA from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. degree in pharma/chemical engineering from Drexel Institute. He serves as founder and director of biotech and device health care companies.

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Prof. Eli Hazum
Partner & Chief Scientist

Dr. Eli Hazum received his Ph.D. degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1978 in the area of hormone mechanisms. The author of more than 100 scientific publications in various areas of drug development, he started his professional career as a professor at the Weizmann Institute. Later, he spent 5 years at Glaxo Inc., in North Carolina as the department head of Receptor Research and Metabolic Diseases. Returning to Israel in 1992, Dr. Hazum served in various executive research positions at Biotechnology General Corp. and as V.P. of R&D at Peptor Ltd., before joining Medica Venture Partners as Chief Scientific Officer.

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Yoav Waizer
Chief Financial Officer

Yoav Waizer joined the Medica team in late 2005, bringing over 12 years of experience in venture capital. Prior to joining Medica, Yoav was the CFO, COO and part of the founding team of Cedar Fund, a $225 million venture capital fund, with offices in Israel and US. Prior to this Yoav was the CFO of Star Ventures (Israel), a $1B Fund with offices in Munich, Herzliya and Dallas. Yoav brings experience from pre-seed deals through later-round financings, M&A transactions and IPOs. Yoav holds a MBA in Information Systems and B.Sc. in Accounting and Statistics, both from the Tel-Aviv University.

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Dr. Pennina Safer
Vice President

Dr. Pennina Safer comes to Medica after two years at Concord Ventures where she was part of the Healthcare investment team, and two years with an Israeli biotech start-up, CBD Technologies. Pennina brings significant experience from the US biotech industry, including 14 years at Genetics Institute, a Boston - area based biotechnology company which was acquired by American Home Products for $1B. While at GI, she held a range of positions including Director, Research Technology Acquisition. Pennina received her PhD in Human Genetics from Yale University, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.

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Batsheva Elran
Managing Partner

Batsheva joined the Medica team early in 2003 bringing a multifaceted background in Pharmacy, Business Law and Venture Capital. Batsheva was a General Partner in Concord Ventures, founding and managing its healthcare portfolio. She joined the Concord management team with its first venture capital fund Nitzanim in early 1996. Prior to that she served as a legal advisor to the Israeli Anti-Trust Authority, representing the Israeli government in opening up industries for competition. Before, she was a litigator, focusing on Corporate and Intellectual Property Law with the Law firm Luthi & Associates in Tel Aviv. As a pharmacist in the medical forces, IDF, she managed medical equipment purchases. Batsheva holds a B.Sc. cum laude in Pharmacy from the Pharmacy School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a LL.B. from the University of Tel-Aviv Law School and an Executive MBA from the University of Bradford, UK.

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