June 20, 2008
Malaysia Concludes Five
Biotechnology Pact At Bio San Diego
From Leslean Arshad
SAN DIEGO, June 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has signed
five major biotechnology agreements with
international partners here Thursday to arm itself
with the capacity-building projects to expedite the
commercialisation of its biotech industry.
Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp)
sealed collaboration agreements at BIO International
Convention 2008 with US-based Trusgen LLC in
healthcare biotech and with South Korea's Insect
Biotech Co Ltd to undertake industrial biotech
undertaking.
Three other agreements involving agriculture biotech
collaborations were between Abcar Asia Sdn Bhd and
France's Abcar DIC Process, bionexus-status Success
Nexus Sdn Bhd and Italy's Merloni Progretti and Budi
BioFuels and US-based PureVision Technology.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Datuk
Dr Maximus J. Ongkili, who is leading an 82-member
delegation to the world's largest biotech gathering,
and Malacca Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali
Rustam, who is also here to attend the convention,
witnessed the exchange of documents.
The four-day event, beginning Tuesday, attracted
over 20,000 participants from 70 countries and
featured 2,200 leading biotech companies around the
globe.
On Wednesday, two local companies, Melaka Biotech
Holdings Sdn Bhd and Vanguard Creative Technologies,
sealed agreements with India's VIVO Biotech on
healtcare biotech.
Malaysia is expected to reap RM1 billion in
investments from 2008 to 2011 following the signing
of the six agreements.
BiotechCorp chief executive officer, Datuk Iskandar
Mizal Mahmood, said Malaysia has set an ambitious
target for the commercialisation of its biotech
sector from 2011 to 2015.
He said the key indicators to be achieved by 2015
were the RM9 billion investment by private sector
and government, 25 strong biotech companies with
total revenue of RM80 billion and contribution to
the gross domestic product of four percent.
"Given the tremendous commitment by our
international partners to be part of this effort, we
are moving closer to achieve these targets," he said
here Thursday.
BiotechCorp, which was established in 2005, is the
leading development agency for biotech industry in
Malaysia.
US-based Trusgen has proposed to invest US$250
million (US$1=RM3.25) in Malaysia, including the
setting up of a locally-incorporated company,
Trusgen Biopharmaceuticals Sdn Bhd, and a
world-class biologics manufacturing facility.
Trusgen president/chief executive officer, R. Bruce
Register, said three potential sites had been
identified.
"We will decide on it soon. We want to move
quickly," he said.
He said the manufacturing facility would be fed by
North American and European pharmaceutical companies
along with Trusgen's pipeline of client products
from small-scale feeder contract manufacturing
operations in India.
"These biologics would be transferred to Trusgen
Biopharmaceuticals for full-scale manufacturing,
licensing and commercial distribution," he said.
The Insect Biotech agreement aims to identify
potential candidate for joint venture with the
company to facilitate the proposed establishment of
an industrial enzyme manufacturing facility in
Malaysia.
BiotechCorp, in a statement, said the initiatives
would allow the transfer of micro organism and
technology for the production of industrial enzyme.
Malaysia is currently a net importer of enzymes. The
high dependence on foreign production is mainly due
to absence of significant enzyme producers in the
country.
The agreement between Abcar Asia Sdn Bhd and
France's Abcar DIC Process involves a full
technology transfer.
Abcar DIC Process managing director, Vincenta
Biasco-Allaf, said Abcar Asia would be a stepping
stone for Abcar France to explore the vast market
opportunities in Malaysia and Asia.
Abcar is the holder of DIC (detente instant control
or controlled instant pressure drop) technology for
post-harvest processing of agricultural products.
The technology will provide mainly pre-treatment of,
among others, rice, fruits, cereals and herbs prior
to drying and extraction.
The Success Nexus-Merloni Progretti collaboration
involves the latter building a manufacturing plant
for the former which will be financed by a
government export bank of Italy, SACE.
Merloni Progetti would also purchase the entire
production of second generation biodiesel and
Dichlorohydrin from the plant.
It has has also proposed to form a joint venture
company with Success Nexus for biofuel production
technology undertakings.
Merloni Progetti sales director, Francesco Zegno,
said the company would invest €13 million (€1 =
RM5.05) for the Malaysian operation.
The Budi BioFuels-PureVision Technology
collaboration aims to create a bio-refining process
technology most suitable and economical for the
production of industrial products from fermentable
sugar of cellulosic feedstock, empty fruit bunches
(EFBs) -- with ethanol being the first product
targeted.
Budi BioFuels would use PureVision Technology's
proprietary knowledge and technology to create a new
bio-refining process technology for production of
industrial product -- ethanol from EFB.
"At the end of this programme, a new set of data and
new knowledge will be captured and patented," said
PureVision Technology president/chief executive
officer, Ed Lehrberger.
He said PureVision Technology would invest US$15
million.
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