News Straits Times, October 19, 2007

50 BioNexus firms likely by year end

By Rupa Damodaran
rupabanern@n5tp com my

THE number of BioNexus status companies is expected to increase to 50 by year-end, with additional investments exceeding RM250 million, says Malaysian Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood.

“There are currently 39 BioNexus companies, with investments totaling RM1 billion and employing 1,000 people,” he said at a media briefing to announce the Global Entrepreneurship Programme (QB3) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

A BioNexus status is equivalent to a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status where companies will get tax breaks and government grants for research. BioNexus companies are mostly from the agribiotech and healthcare sectors.

“We are evaluating 100 companies (for BioNexus status) using the quality of their business plans as a yardstick measure.”

QB3 is a collaboration with the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Re search for research, human capital and bio entrepreneurship development.

The training programme, the first of its kind, is in line with Biotechnology Corp’s target to train up to 240 entrepreneurs and biotechnology companies in the next three years.

The 20 participants at the one-week global BioEntrepreneurship course will leave for the US on Saturday. They will be joined by 10 others from North and South America.

They include representatives from BioNexus companies, research universities, key government agencies, institutions supporting the development of entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises as well as public-listed companies investing in bio technology.

(Under the programme,) participants will benefit from extensive hands-on experiences and case study discussions with particular emphasis on challenges and critical opportunities unique to the biotechnology market.