China-Israel cooperation spawns mask, air filter to kill COVID
Editor's Notes:
Shanghai, a well-established destination for investment from home and abroad, is confident of riding the waves of a rising city to attract more quality investment with better policies and services.
Investors check innovative products developed by companies based in the China-Israel Innovation Hub in Shanghai.
Based on a new filter technology of the Israeli military, the world's first facial mask that can kill coronavirus has been unveiled at the China-Israel Innovation Hub in Shanghai.
The bronze-color mask, jointly developed by Shanghai Health Box Co and its Israeli partner MedCu, has played a key role during the city's fight against the COVID-19 resurgence this year.
As the company officially registered in the hub, it unveiled another anti-COVID product on Monday – a car air filter that can kill the virus efficiently.
"Through a patented technology and copper oxide non-woven fabric, the filter can kill over 98 percent of the coronavirus, including the Omicron sub-variant," said Huang Yuhao, general manager of the company.
The company has reached initial purchase agreements with domestic automakers such as FAW, Chery and JAC on the new product, which will be further promoted to air-conditioning, water purifiers as well as subway, high-speed railway and public buses, according to Huang.
The products are among the latest achievements of scientific cooperation between the two countries at the innovation hub, which was officially launched in Putuo District in December 2019.
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak shortly after its opening, the hub now boasts nearly 90 companies and research institutes from both countries. More than 270 intellectual properties have been created in the park, Jiang Aifeng, executive vice director of Putuo, revealed.
"Through the incubators of the hub, two startups have recently received 443 million yuan (US$64.7 million) in their initial round of investments," Jiang noted.
Six companies, including Health Box, officially settled in the hub on Monday at an event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Israel. It also marks the full work resumption of the hub after the severe COVID-19 resurgence in March.
The world's first COVID-killing mask, which is jointly developed by Shanghai Health Box Co and its Israeli partner MedCu.
The air filter that can kill 98 percent of the coronavirus in a car.
Other new companies, including Bio-Signal Processing, a biomedical tech firm owned by an Israeli company, developed an innovative non-invasive diagnostic method for heart diseases.
Nanobebe, another wholly-owned subsidiary of an Israeli brand, plans to bring high-tech maternal and infant feeding products to the Chinese market.
Malton Industry, a new materials developer, aims to replace all plastic products being used in the cabins of passenger planes with its biodegradable substitutes by 2030.
Also on Monday, Putuo District launched its first "patent supermarket" in the hub for companies and investors to check, promote and transfer patents at a low cost.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan signed the China-Israel Innovation Cooperation Action Plan (2018-2021) during a visit to Israel in October 2018, which facilitated the founding of the hub in Shanghai.
In January 2022, Wang signed the updated version of the action plan with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, which raised new requirements for the hub's future development, Jiang said.
The initial phase of the hub is built on the former site of Shanghai Hero Pen Factory, a time-honored brand dating back to the 1930s, now renamed Hero World.
According to the blueprint, the hub is expected to make Putuo's Taopu area on par with Zhangjiang Technology City in the Pudong New Area as a key center for the development of Shanghai as a technology and innovation center.
Chinese and Israeli officials jointly launch a new incubator at the China-Israel Innovation Hub.
