Dvora Teitelbaum
The biochemist whose sustained research helped bring Copaxone to patients
Dvora Teitelbaum (1941–2008) was an Israeli biochemist and a central participant in the research that led to Copaxone for multiple sclerosis. Her career draws attention to the sustained work behind a medicine: designing experiments, checking results and carrying knowledge between laboratory and clinical investigation. Her contribution deserves recognition by name alongside those of Ruth Arnon and Michael Sela.
A research direction begun during doctoral study
Born Dvora Savitsky in Tel Aviv to parents who had immigrated from Poland, Teitelbaum studied biology at Tel Aviv University before undertaking doctoral research at the Weizmann Institute under Arnon. Her work investigated the immune system and synthetic materials intended to help explain an animal disease resembling multiple sclerosis. She completed her doctorate in 1974 and continued conducting research at the institute.
Following an unexpected result
The materials did not provoke the disease as anticipated; some instead suppressed it. That observation opened a new direction. Teitelbaum, Arnon and Sela developed copolymer-1, the basis of Copaxone, and shared in the resulting patents. Progress depended less on a single moment of inspiration than on the willingness to investigate an unexpected result over many years.
Teitelbaum continued studying the material’s activity and supporting its development. When Teva advanced the medicine, she advised the company and assisted with research planning and implementation. Copaxone received US approval in 1996 and became a treatment for reducing relapses in appropriate forms of multiple sclerosis. It is not a cure.
A continuing connection with patients
After her death, her children established a Weizmann research fund in memory of both parents, supporting collaboration with hospitals. That continuation reflects a central feature of her career: the connection between scientific work and human needs.
Why this legacy belongs in Moreshet
Moreshet includes Teitelbaum because the history of discovery should remember the researchers who patiently built its evidence. Moreshet.com records her substantial role in developing a treatment used internationally. Her story gives a fuller account of Israeli medical research and of the women whose contributions helped carry it beyond the laboratory.