Business Times, NST, September 8, 2007

Biotechnology sector to get RM236m injection
By Zaidi Isham Ismail bt@nstp.com.my

THE Government will allocate RM236 million in Budget 2008 to buy technology for the biotech sector, develop a Biodiversity Research Centre and Biotechnology Commercialisation Centre as well as fund an anti-cancer compound research.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said to support private sector initiatives, BioNexus status companies can now use the laboratories and research facilities at local universities.

"This is to encourage cooperation between biotechnology companies and local universities, thereby optimising the capacity of research laboratories and facilities at the universities," Abdullah said when tabling the Budget in Parliament yesterday.

Malaysian Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said the spending is to mitigate the inherent risks involved in this industry for the private sector.

"These initiatives are aimed at expediting further the development of the industry, and the technology acquisition programme will certainly facilitate the development and the commercialisation of good existing technologies in this field into the market in a speedy manner," he said.

Iskandar said putting out products to the market quickly is very crucial in the industry.
Meanwhile, the Biodiver-sity Research Centre will facilitate the development of one of the nation's inherent strengths in the global biotechnology value chain, namely biodiversity.

He said more than 35 per cent of the existing therapeutics worldwide are based on natural substances.

Iskandar said the centre will also be able to accelerate Malaysia's entry into the global nutraceutical industry, which currently has a global market size of more than US$210 billion (RM735 billion) and growing rapidly still.

The initiative to allow BioNexus companies to use labs at local universities will allow start-up companies to not only lower their investment cost and entry into the industry but will also foster a close collaboration with the scientific community in the country.