RICHMOND, Va., September 2, 2007 - The Virginia Israel BioSciences Commercialization Center (VIBSCC) announced today that it will dispatch a business and scientific delegation to Israel to select up to five of the most promising Israeli bioscience companies that would benefit from participation in Gateway America, a program that supports Israeli bioscience companies seeking to enter the U.S. market. The delegation will be interviewing Israeli companies the week of October 7-11, 2007 to determine which companies will be invited to participate in a special two day program held at the VIBSCC in Richmond, Virginia, on December 4 -5, 2007.
 
“This is a fantastic opportunity for Israeli businesses in the bioscience field. The purpose of the VIBSCC is to benefit Israeli bioscience companies through a combination of services that ultimately give them the upper hand when entering the U.S. market,” said Ralph Robbins, executive director of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. “These interviews are the first step to identifying the most qualified companies to which we can offer these advantages.” The two day Gateway America program will offer each of the selected Israeli companies “tachlis”, one-on-one meetings and working sessions with venture capitalists, angel investors, and leading medical distributors including Owens & Minor and McKesson.  Additional meetings will take place with the management of the Commercialization Center.
 
The VIBSCC comprises part of one of the fastest growing Biotech parks in the U.S. and features a medical center with an award-winning Center of Excellence in the BioTechnology Research Park and the Virginia BioSciences Development Center. The Center connects participating businesses with a group of senior staff with expertise in sales, marketing, distribution and clinical academic fields nationwide. VIBSCC participants obtain direct access to external marketing and distribution channels, as well as investment capital, including a $3 million Israeli Opportunity Fund established by Virginia-based angel investors.
 
The delegation will arrive in Israel on October 6, 2007 and start the interview process in Tel Aviv on October 7, 2007.
 

The BIRD Foundation (Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial R&D Foundation) has recently awarded two grants to Virginia companies.   Grants of up to $1 million are awarded for joint R&D projects between Israeli and US technology companies.  Considered one of the most successful funding programs of its kind, new technologies resulting from these grants have generated sales topping $7.5 billion over the past thirty years since BIRD's inception.
 
Fulcrum IT Services, Inc. of Manassas, Virginia and SoftExpress, Ltd. of
Netanya, Israel received a $900,000 grant in June, 2007, to develop a consumer application for live mobile video.  The project, called "Vidrunner", is a P2P software application for the sender, a Java applet for the viewer, and a service for making the c connections.  The patented three node architecture is carrier and hardware independent and minimizes infrastructure and bandwidth requirements. The application administrator node enables unique billing, reporting and location-based display capabilities.  According to Peter Lazar of Fulcrum, "We believe that Vidrunner will facilitate the growth of live mobile P2P video streaming, as Skype similarly launched VOIP into the mainstream.  Like Skype, Vidrunner is scalable to a huge user-base at a low cost.
The Virginia BioTechnology Research and Development Center in cooperation with their strategic partners, has teamed with an Israeli company, R&D Supports, to develop the next generation of orthopedic braces.  They have received an $800,000 grant to  

Editor's Note: The following article was contributed by an expert in Healthcare Communications.

Healthcare is a highly competitive and regulated industry, and successful market penetration is dependent upon the ability to reach and educate your customers with compelling product value propositions.  A robust communications strategy that incorporates threekey drivers of success will increase your success -- from launch through all product lifecycle stages.
 
1. Build relationships with medical experts to create consistent messaging and long-term trusted advisory liaisons
 
Communicating a product’s therapeutic benefits must be linked to credible sources, which includes external scientific advisors and industry thought leaders.  Identifying these important voices prior to launch helps on two levels.  First, external medical experts understand the industry and competition, both current and forecasted.  They are well suited to assist in crafting core messages that resonate with professional target audiences as well as patients. 
 
The perspectives of external experts ensure your value proposition is clearly articulated and well received.  Second, long-term trusted advisory relationships are key to the prolonged success of your product.  As market conditions change, competition emerges, and regulations shift, your key advisors will guide you in updating product messaging and positioning.  These trusted experts act as outsourced business and scientific intelligence, and they aid your internal teams throughout the product lifecycle.  Along the way, they build your corporate reputation as experts in the disease state. 

Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that Virginia again led the nation in Forbes.com’s “Best States for Business” ranking. In its second year, the review examines multiple objective measurements, including business cost, regulatory climate, quality of the workforce, and economic growth. Forbes.com is the official Internet site of the Forbes family of business publications.