Larta Wins Grant To Promote US-Israel Biotech
December 22, 2003

By James Klein, Larta VOX Editor

The US-Israel Science & Technology Foundation (USISTF) announced an agreement with Larta to promote biotechnology collaboration between the U.S. and Israel.

Larta will be one of seven organizations chosen to help promote Israeli biotechnology companies and projects. Other organizations include Enterprise Network of Silicon Valley; Chicago Micro and Nano Community (CMNC); and Bioenterprise, an Ohio business development group. All seven projects are being organized into a single consortium that will be marketed under the umbrella of the USISTF.

Dr. Marc Siegel, Program Director of the USISTF, said Larta was chosen as a "...successful American non-profit business development" organization. The USISTF also mentioned Larta University, Larta's award-winning entrepreneurial program.

"We are increasingly working with groups from foreign countries, helping government agencies and other organizations realize the kinds of technology benefits we've seen in California," said Larta President and CEO Rohit Shukla.

Larta has a history of success creating and administering custom entrepreneurship training courses for government agencies. Larta recently completed an entrepreneurship training seminar called the Japanese Entrepreneur Training Program (JETP), a four-month course to provide business training to Japanese entrepreneurs. JETP was a collaboration between Larta, the University of Southern California, and the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO), a Japanese government agency.

"This is a great opportunity for Larta to help promote Israeli biotechnology companies and programs," said Victor Hwang, Larta COO. "We've been working with U.S. biotechnology companies for many years. We know what start-up biotechnology companies go through and what they need to do to successfully approach the industry and the international community of investors."

Larta's USISTF project will use Internet-based distance learning technologies to provide an entrepreneurship course for Israeli business people, with the goal of preparing companies that have a promising biotech project ready for a U.S. collaboration. Ten of these companies will attend a special mentoring and training program in the U.S., organized by Larta.

Larta has been training entrepreneurs for many years under its "Larta University" banner. Larta University has trained thousands of people in business skills, entrepreneurship, finance, legal issues and R&D commercialization. A recent partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers added the "Expert Access Series" of courses covering finance and accounting issues for emerging technology companies.

The USISTF is the funding and administrative arm of the US-Israel Science and Technology Commission (USISTC) a bilateral commission established by the United States Department of Commerce and the Israel Ministry of Industry and Trade in 1994 to foster scientific, technological, and economic cooperation.

Read more about the Japanese Entrepreneur Training Program (JETP)

For more information about Larta's Customized Training Programs, please contact Carlos Gutierrez, Director of Business Development, at 213 765-4833 or cgutierrez@old.larta.org