The Edge Financial Daily, Oct 29, 2007

Malaysia on right track in biotech development

By Thomas Soon

SAN FRANCISCO: Malaysia is heading in the right direction in the development of its biotechnology industry with the formation of a policy framework and accompanying programmes, California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) executive director Regis B Kelly said.

He said that the formalisation of the National Biotechnology Policy in 2005 reflected the Malaysian government’s vision in jump-starting its biotechnology industry.

“It will be a stretch, but Malaysia has the capacity to get it done,” Kelly told The Edge Financial Daily on the sidelines of a week-long training programme, “Global Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Course” here.

The course, organised by the Malaysian government-owned Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp), brought together more than 20 Malaysian public and private sector individuals and also participants from China and Vietnam as well as three post-doctoral and graduate students from QB3.

The Malaysian delegation is led by Biotech Corp senior vice president, strategy and planning, Prof Norazmi Mohd Nor. QB3 is an association of University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), university of California Santa Cruz and University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

The course is part of a five-year agreement between BiotechCorp and QB3 inked earlier this year to facilitate the development of the biotechnology industry in Malaysia.

Other BiotechCorp-QB3 programmes include research-based training and collaboration, allowing Malaysia students, post-doctoral and visiting faculty to come to QB3 and work alongside UCSF researchers.

Director of the Malaysian programme at QB3 and an assistant research immunologist at the UCSF division of experimental medicine, P’ng Loke, a Malaysian, said that the focus of the course was “emerging economies”, those which did not yet have an existing biotechnology infrastructure.

“We aim to help create successful biotechnology companies in these emerging economies,” he said, adding that this requires education for entrepreneurs as well as investors.

Kelly, who is a member of the Malaysian government’s International Advisory Panel on Biotechnology said: “The association with QB3 is a smart thing. QB3 represents the cutting edge in biotechnology in the United States and the US is the global leader in biotechnology.”

He said that QB3 aimed to be recognised as the leading centre for the development of biotechnology throughout the world.

“We are not a profit centre. Our collaboration with Malaysia is revenue neutral,” he added.

Course director Prof David Charron from UC Berkeley said that while the jump start for the industry was critical, it was equally vital for the country to nurture a sustainable ecosystem and infrastructure.

“There must be continuing capacity building," he said adding that the academia was an essential component in the development of the in Soon industry. – By Thomas Soon