In its fourth year of war with Russia, Ukraine has taken steps to prepare itself for a nuclear catastrophe. With multiple nuclear power plants in the line of fire and rising nuclear rhetoric from Moscow, Kyiv has gained access to an Israeli drug that could save thousands of lives in the case of a radiation accident.
Israeli biotech firm Pluri, a developer of placenta-based cell technology, has signed an agreement with Ukraine to stockpile medication for deadly radiation poisoning that uses cells grown from donated placentas.
The protracted war between Russia and Ukraine has increased the chances of a nuclear fallout, either due to the shelling of nuclear power plants or, in a worst-case scenario, the decision by Moscow to use nukes as a last resort to end the war.
To prepare for such an eventuality, last month, Haifa-based Pluri (formerly Pluristem) entered into an exclusive collaboration with Ukrainian umbilical cord blood bank Hemafund to stockpile and distribute its placental expanded cell therapy, PLX-R18, as a potential treatment for life-threatening radiation sickness, the Times of Israel reported.
Pluri and Hemafund announced their collaboration to advance clinical trials, register the drug’s therapy as a radiation countermeasure, and obtain the necessary regulatory approvals for the drug in Ukraine. The agreement has the potential to generate over US$100 million in value for both parties.
“Our cryostorage facilities and logistics network position us well to support the introduction of PLX-R18 as a potential vital tool for radiation emergency preparedness in Ukraine,” Hemafund founder Yaroslav Issakov was quoted as saying by the report. “While we hope such treatments remain precautionary, our goal is to stand ready to distribute this potential therapy in the event of an emergency.”
Under the agreement, the Israeli biotech firm Pluri will produce and supply an initial capacity of 12,000 doses of its PLX-R18, sufficient to treat 6,000 people. Hemafund will store and manage the doses and deliver them to medical institutions across Ukraine as needed.
“At present, there are no other treatments for radiation poisoning that use stem cells taken from a placenta as far as we know,” Pluri chief commercial officer Nimrod Bar Zvi said. “The ability to treat acute radiation exposure with cell therapy and to scale it up for mass production is where we are unique since we can supply thousands and thousands of vials to large numbers of people.”
How The Revolutionary Drug Works
During a nuclear attack or accident, a person is exposed to high levels of ionizing radiation and develops a condition known as “Hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS).” This causes destruction of the bone marrow and blood cells, leading to severe anemia, infection, and bleeding. If a person is not treated for these symptoms, it can cause death within four to eight weeks.
Pluri focuses on developing 3D technology to mimic how living cells communicate and interact with the body to grow and expand. The company harnesses stem cells extracted from the placenta donated by healthy women who have given birth by cesarean section in hospitals. These single placenta cells are cultivated in a proprietary 3D bioreactor system with a micro-environment that resembles and simulates the human body.
“Cells are the building blocks of life — everything in our world starts and ends with cells,” Bar Zvi told The Times of Israel. “These tiny cells are amazing creatures that exist in almost any aspect of our life, whether we get them from humans, animals, or plants.”
Once inside the bioreactors, Bar Zvi explained, these stem cells start “to communicate with each other and proliferate, similar to what happens in the human body, and they are secreting proteins as we mimic the conditions of the natural environment they need to expand.”
Using this technology, a single placenta cell can be multiplied into billions of distinct cells. Thus, cells from a single placenta can treat more than 20,000 patients.
“In the end of that process, we have a vial that contains a specific amount of our placental expanded cells depending on the dosage needed for the patient. Once the vial with the cells is injected into the muscle, it stimulates the human body’s own capabilities for the reactivation and regeneration of blood cells, mitigates the effects of radiation exposure and we see the recovery happening,” Bar Zvi told the Israeli media outlet.
The Results Of The Clinical Trials
Pluri claims that its PLX-R18 has been safely tested in both humans and animals. Results from a series of recent studies in animals exposed to radiation demonstrated an increase in survival rates from 29% in the placebo group to 97% in the treated group.
Similarly, the administration of PLX-R18 as a prophylactic measure 24 hours before radiation exposure, and again 72 hours after exposure, resulted in an increase in survival rates, from 4% in the placebo group to 74% in the treated group, according to the results of Pluri’s clinical trials.
Notably, in July 2023, Pluri was awarded a three-year US$4.2 million contract by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue to develop its novel treatment for deadly radiation sickness and to collaborate with the US Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Maryland.
Pluri has received an “orphan drug status” in the US, meaning that in the case of a nuclear accident or radiation leakage, Pluri will be able to use the drug to treat people affected by radiation.
The Many Close Nuclear Calls In The Ukraine War
The agreement between Pluri and Hemafund was signed two weeks after an alleged Russian drone, armed with a high-explosive warhead, exploded into the protective confinement shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
While the Ukrainian emergency services were able to extinguish the fire, the incident could have caused a nuclear catastrophe.
However, this was by no means the only close nuclear call in the three-year-long Ukraine war.
Earlier, in November 2022, shelling damaged buildings, systems, and equipment at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukrainian sources. The ZNPP, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been under Russian control since March 2022.
In April 2025, the IAEA reported a drone crash near ZNPP’s training center, underscoring ongoing risks to nuclear safety during the conflict.
The rising nuclear rhetoric from Moscow is another concern. In 2024, Russia revised its nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for nuclear use to include conventional threats to Russian territory or attacks by non-nuclear states supported by nuclear powers (e.g., Ukraine with U.S. backing).
In March 2024, Putin stated Russia was “technically ready for nuclear war” if U.S. troops were deployed to Ukraine.
Even if the realistic chances of a nuclear attack on Ukraine are close to none, the possibility of a nuclear accident in the warzone cannot be rejected. Thus, Ukraine’s decision to stockpile Pluri’s drug can potentially save thousands of lives in the case of radiation leakage.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from The University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
