Sorek Medical and the EIC Accelerator: Multi-Core Biopsy Stalled

Sorek Medical Systems, an engineering company in the Yokneam Illit high-tech park in northern Israel, was selected in the 5 June 2019 cut-off of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2 for MCBD, a "multi-core biopsy device" meant to take several tissue samples from different parts of a tumour through a single needle insertion. The European Commission's list of selected companies names Sorek as the only beneficiary of the project, and CORDIS records an EU contribution of €1,603,000 towards a total cost of €2,290,000, from 1 October 2019 to 31 January 2023.

The project's final periodic report states the outcome plainly: the motorized device "did not perform as expected" in an animal study, the clinical study had "not started yet", and neither FDA clearance nor a CE mark had been obtained when the grant ended. Nearly four years later, no clinical data, clearance or product launch from Sorek is public. Its website, sorek-medical.com, no longer resolves, and the Israeli company register shows that its last annual report was filed for 2023.

Where Sorek Stands Now

On paper, Sorek still exists. The open data of the Israeli Corporations Authority lists it as active, incorporated on 27 January 2000, with 2023 as the last year for which an annual report was filed, and flags it as a "violating company" (חברה מפרה), a status the register applies to companies in breach of their filing or fee duties. OpenCorporates, which mirrors the register, also shows it as active at the same Yokneam Illit address. No liquidation or insolvency is recorded.

There is no sign of operations, though. The domain sorek-medical.com does not resolve; the last captures in the Internet Archive, from August and November 2023, only redirect to a "newsite" page that was never archived. No press release, product, hiring notice or funding round from Sorek since the end of the EU project could be found. On that record, eiceu classes the company as dormant: registered, but with no public activity or filings for more than 18 months.

Related patent work continues under another company. In December 2023 a new company, Scopus Medical Systems Ltd, was registered in Jerusalem care of Erez Nevo, according to the same register, which shows it filing its 2026 annual report. Google Patents lists Scopus Medical Systems as the assignee of a US patent, granted in March 2025, for guiding curved biopsy needles, with Nevo as an inventor; that patent's priority date is March 2020, before Scopus was registered in Israel, and the public records do not explain the transfer. The curved-needle core biopsy patent that the MCBD final report presents as its main advance was granted in June 2025 as US12318076, which Google Patents lists as held by Nevo personally rather than by Sorek. Whether Scopus has raised money, staff or customers could not be verified.

The Technology: Many Samples, One Needle

A standard core biopsy needle cuts a sliver of tissue along the straight line of the needle; sampling other parts of a tumour means inserting it again. Sorek's argument, set out in the CORDIS report, is that tumours vary from region to region, so a single core can miss the mutations or proteins that decide which drug will work. MCBD was designed to take several cores from a "volume of interest" around one insertion point, store each in order in a cassette, and preserve them quickly so that fragile biomarkers survive.

The company came to this from an earlier idea. Its 2017 EU feasibility study, CryoBiopsy, funded with €50,000 under SME Instrument Phase 1, covered a device that freezes one part of a biopsy sample for molecular analysis while the other part goes into formalin for the pathologist. An archived Sorek web page describes these products as CryoBx and CryoTray and cites proof-of-concept work with Johns Hopkins and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Two 2018 conference abstracts by Nevo and co-authors at the American Association for Cancer Research, listed on the CORDIS results page, report next-generation sequencing results from dual-mode preserved breast biopsies and a cryogenic biopsy device tested with National Cancer Institute researchers. The MCBD objective on CORDIS still calls the work "Our CryoBiopsy Phase 2 project".

The price comparison above is the company's own. The final report says 50% to 60% of breast biopsies use vacuum-assisted devices costing €300 to €400, against €50 to €60 per use planned for the motorized MCBD. Because the device never reached the market, the figure cannot be tested.

What the EIC Grant Promised, and What the Record Shows

The CORDIS objective promised to "test and validate" Sorek's devices, forecast cumulative revenues of €57 million after five years of sales and 20 new jobs. The final report lists five working objectives: optimise the motorized device, test it in animals, run a clinical study, obtain FDA clearance and then a CE mark, and raise follow-on funding. The grant agreement was signed on 19 September 2019, 106 days after the cut-off, and CORDIS shows the project closed after its January 2023 end date.

1. Optimise the motorized MCBDPartialFirst version abandoned; a second-generation curved-needle prototype was in lab testing at the end, per the final report.
2. Animal studyFailedThe device "failed frequently" to move samples from the needle tip to the cassette; a repeat study was planned but no result is public.
3. Clinical studyNot started"Not started yet" at project end; no trial registration or results found since.
4. FDA 510(k) and CE markNot achievedOnly an FDA pre-submission meeting; the FDA 510(k) database has no clearance for Sorek.
5. Follow-on funding and partnersNot achievedThe report names interest from the Mid-Atlantic Bio-Angels; no investment by them or anyone else is public.
6. PatentsGrantedUS11589845 (multi-sample core biopsy, Sorek, February 2023) and US12318076 (curved needle, Nevo, June 2025), per Google Patents.

The grant paid for a working prototype and patents, which counts for something. But the milestones that would have shown the device works in people, and could be sold, were all missed, and no later announcement fills the gap. eiceu therefore rates the award as not delivered.

The Money Behind the Needle

Sorek's own finances are not public: Israeli private companies do not file accounts that can be read for free, and no funding round or investor in Sorek could be found. The company is not among the 320 names on the EIC Fund portfolio list, checked page by page; the award was a grant only, so no EIC equity was ever on offer.

The EU was not the only public funder of this line of work. NIH RePORTER lists Erez Nevo as principal investigator of a National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot contract with Robin Medical, Inc. of Baltimore titled "Multi-core biopsy device with volumetric field of tissue acquisition": $300,000 in fiscal 2019 and a further $2,000,000 in fiscal 2020, for work running from 16 September 2019 to 31 August 2022. The abstract describes a prototype "that we have already developed" and adds electromagnetic position tracking. Sorek's archived list of in-house developments, which includes MRI tracking systems, an MRI head-mounted display and motion correction for MRI, matches projects that NIH RePORTER lists for Robin Medical under Nevo. How the two companies are related, and how the work and its results were split between the EU and US contracts, is not public.

Why It Matters for Europe

Better tissue sampling sits squarely within Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, presented in February 2021, which makes "diagnosis and treatment" one of its four pillars, and within Horizon Europe's cancer mission. A biopsy that captures a tumour's variation in one pass would support the targeted therapies the plan backs. Sorek is an Israeli company, and no manufacturing site, partner or customer in the EU was named in its CORDIS reports.

What Could Not Be Checked

The Verdict

Sorek Medical Systems, Scopus Medical Systems and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based on public records and published statements, linked throughout.