Mennen Medical’s Model 801 pacemaker. From: Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi’s memoir at www.makash.org.il/sy/jerusa_book.pdf
I spent the year-end holidays in Israel and had the pleasure of speaking with some of Mennen Medical’s and Omikron Scientific’s first employees regarding the efforts that these companies made in the late 1970s and early 1980s towards the development and manufacture of pacemakers in Israel.
Benny Kiron, who joined Mennen Medical in 1976 as a product designer, referred me to Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi’s memoir at www.makash.org.il/sy/jerusa_book.pdf, from which I was finally able to understand the origin of Mennen Medical’s pacemaker project, as well as its relationship with Omikron Scientific.
Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi was born in Brasil and emigrated to Israel in 1956. In 1976, while still pursuing his doctorate at the prestigious Weizmann Institute, he started working at the Israeli subsidiary of Mennen-Greatbatch of Clarence, NY.
The Mennen-Greatbatch partnership was dissolved when Wilson Greatbatch decided to concentrate on lithium battery development, and the Israeli company became a subsidiary of Mennen Medical, where an implantable pacemaker project was started.
RF-powered pacemaker developed by the Weizmann Institute and meant for production by Elta. From: Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi’s memoir at www.makash.org.il/sy/jerusa_book.pdf
Shmuel Yerushalmi had worked on the development of an RF-powered pacemaker while still a technician at the Weizmann institute, so his experience was tapped at Mennen Medical to lead the development of a VVI pacemaker powered by a Greatbatch lithium battery. The project was supported by Israel’s Chief Scientist Office and the BIRD (Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation .
PCBA of Mennen Medical’s Model 801 pacemaker. Device was kindly gifted to me by Koby Kamin. ©2025 David Prutchi.
The pacemaker circuitry that his group designed was quite advanced for the time, more so than similar devices made in the US. However, Mennen Medical still had to develop in-house capabilities for titanium can hermetic welding, engraving, header manufacture, packaging, and sterilization. Dr. Yerushalmi, together with people he recruited from Weizmann (Yehuda Pines, head of the Institute’s mechanical workshop, and electronics technician Yaakov Krupka), traveled to the US and acquired the equipment and know-how to set up the production facility in Rehovot.
Contents of Mennen Medical’s Model 801 pacemaker blister pack. Image credit: Benny Kiron
Package label of the Mennen Medical Model 801 pacemaker. Image credit: Benny Kiron
The Mennen Medical Model 801 pacemaker was launched at the Asia-Pacific congress in Jerusalem in 1980.
Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi (left) and Herbert Mennen at the launch of Mennen Medical’s pacemaker model 801 in 1980. From: Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi’s memoir at www.makash.org.il/sy/jerusa_book.pdf
At the end of 1980, a group of Israeli investors bought Mennen Medical’s pacemaker division and incorporated it as part of Omikron Scientific.
Model 821 pacemaker from the transition period from Mennen Medical to Omikron Scientific. Device was kindly gifted to me by Koby Kamin. ©2025 David Prutchi.
Two of the kind engineers who I met during my visit were Micha Auerbach, who joined Omikron in 1980 as Chief Electronics Engineer, and Koby Kamin, who joined in 1982 as their Manager of QA. They told me about the development of ASICs and advanced hybrid technologies to miniaturize the circuitry and improve production quality.
Omikron Scientific model 837 incorporating ceramic hybrid circuit and ASIC made by Tadiran. Device was kindly gifted to me by Koby Kamin. ©2025 David Prutchi.
In spite of their early technological advantage in electronic design, large companies like Medtronic and Cordis quickly caught up, and Omikron’s pacemakers couldn’t compete in the market. Dr. Yerushalmi left the company in 1983, and Omikron Scientific stopped pacemaker production in 1985.
On a personal note, I deeply connected with Dr. Shmuel Yerushalmi’s story because of the parallels between his own professional life and mine. Like him, I worked as a repair technician while in high school. Like him, I emigrated to Israel from South America and worked my way up to a Ph.D. in Engineering, after which I too decided to leave Academia and join Industry, starting my career designing pacemakers at Intermedics. His biographical notes were profoundly inspiring to me.