The Ministry of Health today (Sunday) unusually closed the clinic of Prof. Yaakov LeBron, one of the largest and best known fertility experts in Israel. The decision to close the clinic was made following new findings that were discovered during a surprise audit at the IV IVF clinic. According to the Ministry of Health, the audit found materials that indicate a “clear and immediate harm to public health”.
To read the closure order, click here
These findings led to the issuance of an order by the doctor of the Tel Aviv district of the Ministry of Health, which will apply immediately to the closing of the clinic. “The Ministry of Health continues to examine the additional necessary steps in the matter, including examining the involvement of additional parties, under the limitations of the criminal investigation, and will continue to act to prevent damage to public health, including the public of female patients at the clinic,” it said.
Among the findings at the clinic, storage of embryos and eggs contrary to guidelines, embryo retrieval and fertility treatments at the clinic, even though these treatments are approved only in the hospital and in an approved department. Prof. Jacob LeBron, who owns the clinic, is the partner of Prof. Bider – the main suspect in the case of the contaminated eggs from Georgia. The audit and the decision came after a complaint from a patient who contacted us, and after we turned to the response of the Ministry of Health.
In the case of the contaminated eggs from Georgia, the police and the Ministry of Health investigated a serious suspicion of importing fertilized eggs with a severe genetic disease, for the purpose of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in women in Israel. The suspicion led to the opening of an undercover and complex investigation by the fraud division of the Tel Aviv police, under the fear that using these eggs could spread disease. The investigation, which has been conducted covertly for several months, began after the police received complaints from 4 women, the daughter of one of whom was born as a carrier of hemophilia (silence).
As part of the investigation, materials were accumulated against two suspects – a laboratory manager in the Shefala region, and a professor who owns an in vitro fertilization clinic. According to the suspicion, the two are suspected of operating on several dates during the past months in importing fertilized eggs from Georgia, with the aim of performing fertilization in Israel for their patients, when some of the eggs were found to have a severe genetic disease (hemophilia B).
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