The First Biotechnology Implementation Council Meeting & Launch of BioNexus

The Prime Minister of Malaysia YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi chaired the first Biotechnology Implementation Council Meeting (ICM) on September 7, 2006 in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. 

During the ICM, the BioNexus status and the BioNexus Bill of Guarantees were proposed and approved by the council.

With the BioNexus status, the companies will receive incentives contained within the nine-point BioNexus Bill of Guarantees.  This concept will give the BioNexus status companies, among other things, freedom of ownership, freedom to source funds globally and unrestricted employment of knowledge workers. BioNexus status companies would also have access to shared laboratory and production facilities as well as access to an information network linking research centres of excellence.  The companies are eligible for 10 years of tax exemption on company profits as well as tax deductions on early-stage investments.

The BioNexus status will be awarded by an Inter-Ministerial Committee and administratively handled by BiotechCorp. The ICM was followed by the launching ceremony of the InnoBiologics cGMP Biopharmaceutical Facilities and BioNexus status.  The event also saw the exchange of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between BiotechCorp and its strategic partners in the development of biotechnology human capital and expertise.

The first MoU is with the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3), University of California San Francisco relating to training programmes for Malaysian biotechnology researchers and biotechnopreneurs. The training, which includes technology as well as business development skills, will be provided by QB3 and biotechnology industry professionals from the San Francisco area. BiotechCorp was represented by its Chief Executive Officer, En. Iskandar Mizal Mahmood while QB3 was represented by its Executive Director, Prof. Dr. Regis B. Kelly.

In addition, BiotechCorp and Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre (“MGRC”) also announced today a collaboration to provide scientists from all over the world with access to an integrated bioinformatics portal.

As well as serving as a showcase of Malaysia’s capabilities in this exciting field, the collaboration will serve to increase and intensify research links and partnerships between Malaysian and international research organisations. MGRC tools have been developed by Synamatix Sdn. Bhd. and offer very significant benefits in terms of performance, scalability and sensitivity. BiotechCorp was represented by its CEO, En. Iskandar Mizal while MGRC by its Managing Director, En. Karim Hercus.