The Edge
Financial Daily, 21 May 2008
Biotech industry needs
up to RM100m for commercialisation
by Yantoultra Ngui Yichen
FD@bizedge com
KUALA LUMPUR: Some RM80 million to RM100 million in
public sector investment is needed within the next
two to three years to gear up the biotech industry
for commercialization, Malaysian Biotech Corp. chief
executive Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said
yesterday.
“The good thing is we will be able to leverage on
the tissue banking sector… build some of the
infrastructure and collaborate with foreign parties,
and that is where the fund comes in,” he told
reporters at a briefing on the latest trends in
tissue banking.
Tissue banking, where human and animal tissues are
procured, processed, stored and distributed for
clinical use, was important as it opens up treatment
alternatives, especially for those with cartilage
diseases and spinal cord injuries, and lowered the
cost of treatment, Iskandar said.
“The public needs more awareness on these services.
A key action for Malaysia is to industriously
complement the efforts of the National Tissue Bank
and Nuklear Malaysia in stepping up
commercialisation in tissue banking,” he said.
The global market for tissue engineered products,
including regeneration of bone, cartilage and other
connective structural treatments, was estimated at
around RM15 billion, according to the Tissue
Engineering and Stem Cell Technology Report 2007
published by Visiongain Ltd.
Sterilisation technology provider NovaSterilis Inc
said the tissue bank market was worth about RM1.2
billion in the United States alone in 2007.
“There are no definitive numbers as yet for Asia or
Asia Pacific, but the growth in key markets in India
and China is more than positive,” he said.
Meanwhile, BiotechCorp, the leading biotech
development agency in Malaysia, said it aimed to see
some 120 BioNexus status companies in the country by
year end.
Currently, there are 56 BioNexus status companies in
the country biotechnology – 23 in healthcare
biotechnology, 17 in agriculture biotechnology, 14
in industrial biotechnology and two in
bioinformatics. They have a total investment of
RM1.3 billion.
On the 5th World Congress on Tissue Banking to be
held here from June 2 to 6, organising committee
chairman Datuk Hashim Mohamad said more than 150
foreign participants are expected to attend. |
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