Rafa Pharma Raises Half a Billion Shekels in Share Sale Led by Pimi Fund
Rafa Pharmaceutical Company completed a capital raise through a share sale on Monday, reporting the results overnight. The Pimi Fund, controlled by Israeli businessman Yishai Davidy, acquired control of Rafa from the Sackler family early last decade and has since improved the company's operations. However, the recent fundraising yielded a smaller amount than initially expected, generating a check for 500 million shekels from the sale of 31 million shares plus 19 million option warrants granted without consideration. Originally, Pimi anticipated proceeds up to one billion shekels, but challenging market conditions in recent weeks, including declines in the Tel Aviv stock indices, reduced the final amount.
Rafa was founded in 1937 by Dr. Baruch (Boris) Levin, with his descendants Amir, Tal, Michal Levin, and Limor Sarit Poa Shason retaining about 12% of the shares before the offering. The family sold 4.3 million shares in the raise, netting 68.3 million shekels. The company’s chairman, Uri Yehudai, who previously led Proterom and is a cousin of Yishai Davidy, sold 1.44 million shares for 22.7 million shekels. CEO Ido Leshem sold shares worth 7.8 million shekels. These amounts exclude the options granted as part of the offering.
Rafa develops, manufactures, and markets over 100 pharmaceutical products, including generics and therapeutic items, from its Jerusalem-based facility. Notable products include Hadarin (lice treatment), Bondormin (sleep aid), Stopit (diarrhea relief), Even (stress and anxiety relief), and Davyu (Rett syndrome treatment). The company also operates in the bio-defense sector, producing emergency auto-injectors for chemical warfare defense and trauma treatment. It received up to $186 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Health to develop a hemorrhage treatment injector (TXA).
In 2025, Rafa reported revenues of 418 million shekels, stable from 2024, with 63% from pharmaceuticals and 37% from bio-defense. Net profit was about 100 million shekels, consistent with the previous year. Most of Rafa’s business is in Israel (60.5% of revenues), primarily selling to local health funds that account for 43% of income. Secondary markets include the U.S. (17%) and Germany (15%), mainly for bio-defense products. Since 2022, Rafa has expanded into 17 Central and Eastern European countries through a 2.5 million euro investment in Czech pharmaceutical company Excid.
