Bernama,
21 February 2008
Malaysia Targets 70
More Bionexus Status Companies This Year
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 (Bernama) --
Malaysia is expected to see about 70 more
biotechnology companies with BioNexus status this
year.
Last month, nine biotechnology companies received
the BioNexus status, raising the total to 51
BioNexus companies with total investment of over RM1
billion, said Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, chief
executive officer of Malaysian Biotechnology
Corporation (BiotechCorp).
BiotechCorp, established in May 2005, is the lead
agency for development of Malaysia's biotechnology
industry.
In a move to raise the number of BioNexus status
companies, BiotechCorp is seeking partners from
South Korea.
"With the conferment of BioNexus status, the Korean
partners and investors can benefit from a host of
incentives, which includes the BioNexus Bill of
Guarantees as well as the commercialisation grants
facilitated by BiotechCorp," said Iskandar Mizal at
a press conference at the Malaysia-Korea BioBusiness
Partnering Event 2008.
"We are open to collaborations with Korean partners
which can lead to win-win platform situation, global
businesses and alliances," he said.
"Malaysia's key competitiveness is in its
biodiversity and human capital whilst Korea's is in
investment and biomaterials, and this shows a
perfect match for each other in biotechnology," he
added.
Iskandar Mizal said the Korean model is one of the
international models that Malaysia will benchmark
against as it prepared for capacity building by 2010
and the start of commercialisation in 2011.
"Since the National Biotech Policy was launched, we
have seen many exciting developments, including the
growing number of BioNexus companies in Malaysia and
the acquisition of an exclusive worldwide licence
for the nanotechnology platform from France," he
said.
-- BERNAMA
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