Malaysia Reserve, May 27, 2008
Malaysia’s biotech R&D
on fast track
FAST tracking research and development (R&D),
commercialising results and funding gaps are among
the critical factors that need focus to ensure the
country’s success in biotechnology, Science,
Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus
Johnity Ongkili said yesterday.
He said the untapped research and findings in public
universities and government institutions needed to
be brought forward faster and developed
competitively with platform technology proficiency
for the domestic and global markets.
“We need to intensify public private sector
collaboration even further to ensure more
achievements in this area,” he said at the launch of
The Biotech Review 2005 – 2007 in Kuala Lumpur.
His speech was read by BiotechCorp’s CEO Datuk
Iskandar Mizal Mahmood.
Ongkili said given the extent of government funding
to complement the private sector’s funding in
critical areas of biotechnology development, there
was a need to improve in providing access to funding
without compromising on governance and regulations.
Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan the government has
allocated a total of RM2 billion to complement the
private sector funding to promote biotechnology.
“Funding gaps issues have to be addressed and
addressed efficiently. Additionally, there must be
more participation from private sector financing and
the capital market in order to expand funding from
the government and venture capital sources,” the
minister said.
Hence, there was a need to explore valuation,
pricing risk and capital exit mechanisms that
closely met funding requirements specific to
biotechnology as provided in the United States,
Europe, India, China, Japan and South Korea which
had been supporting the progress of biotechnology in
these countries, he said.
Human capital development should also be intensified
by training and international exposure for Malaysian
talent in biotechnology as well by efforts as to
attract international biotechnology talent to
Malaysia, Ongkili said.
“Similarly in this area, public private sector
collaboration needs to improve further with greater
involvement from biotechnology multinationals
comprising the pharmaceutical global companies,
Malaysian universities and other local
institutions,” he said – Bernama |
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