The Edge Financial Daily, June 17, 2008
Biotech industry needs
private finance boost
By Yantoultra Ngui Yichen
KUALA LUMPUR: The local biotechnology industry needs
more participation from private financing and the
capital market to complement the funding from the
government and venture capital sources, said
Malaysian Biotechnology Corp's (BiotechCorp) chief
executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood.
“There needs to be a greater willingness to explore
valuations, pricing for risk and capital exit
mechanisms that closely meet funding requirements
specific to biotechnology in the way that is
provided in the US, Europe, India, China, Japan and
Korea that has tremendously supported the progress
of biotechnology in these countries,” he told The
Edge Financial Daily.
As at the end of May, Malaysia had 63 BioNexus
companies with a total investment of RM1.3 billion.
Of the 63 ventures, 21 are in agriculture, 25 in
healthcare, 15 in industrial applications and two in
bioinformatics.
Iskandar said BiotechCorp aimed to double the number
to 120 BioNexus firms by the end of this year in
order to gear up for the next phase of the national
Biotech Master Plan, which is the commercialisation
phase from 2011 to 2015.
BiotechCorp would further strengthen its human
capital base, intellectual property regime and
funding in readiness for the commercialisation
target date.
“We will be investing more effort in fast-tracking
research and development and commercialising
results,” Iskandar said. In addition it would
intensify public and private sector collaborations.
Iskandar said innovation-driven sectors like
biotechnology and healthcare were expected to
perform better than traditional industries as the
latter were more likely to experience a slowdown.
“The state of the industry can also be observed
through its employment statistics,” he said pointing
out that almost half of the 30 fastest growing
occupations were concentrated in the health services
sector.
As at Dec 31, 2007 there were 11 biotechnology and
healthcare companies with a market capitalisation of
RM2.5 billion listed on the local bourse. They are
Apex Holdings Bhd, Carotech Bhd, CCM Duopharma
Biotech Bhd, Equator Life Sciences Bhd, Hovid Bhd,
INS Bioscience Bhd, Kotra Industries Bhd,
Pharmaniaga Bhd, Stemlife Bhd, TMC Life Sciences Bhd
and YSP Southeast Asia Holdings Bhd.
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