NST, August 21, 2007

US biotech firm to set up US$400m ops
by Zaidi Isham Ismail

US BIOTECHNOLOGY firm Actis Biologics Inc plans to invest as much as US$400 million (RM1.4 billion) to set up operations in Malaysia, a senior industry official says.

This will include a training centre, and the overall project would create some 2,000 jobs, Malaysian Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp) chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood told Business Times in an interview.

Malaysia wants to become a regional biotechnology hub to get a slice of the lucrative market. The world's 5,000 biotech firms are forecast to make over US$1 trillion (RM3.5 trillion) of revenue by 2015.

Iskandar said Actis will enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Melaka BiotechCorp on Friday.

"The key scope of the MOU is an arrangement to develop 113.3 hectares of land in Malacca where various Actis biotechnology companies will be set up as a result of BiotechCorp's facilitation.

Actis had earlier entered into a MOU with BiotechCorp at BioBoston in May 2007.

"Based on our current engagements with international partners, we are confident of closing at least another three significant transactions soon," said Iskandar.

Actis has set up a local firm, Actis Biologics Malaysia Sdn Bhd, to spearhead its initiatives here.

Actis Biologics Malaysia aims to form four biotechnology companies based on its parent's platform of patents and technologies.

The Malaysian unit also intends to set up venture capital operations to further spur the development of biotechnology initiatives in Malaysia.

Actis Biologics Malaysia expects to address 20 disease segments over seven years.

In a statement, Actis Biologics chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder Sanjeev Saxena said the firm was attracted by the attitude of the Malaysian Government leaders and its officials.

"This has attracted us as a company to utilise Malaysia as a hub for the development and manufacture of our technologies and products.

"Other key reasons for choosing Malaysia are the world-class infrastructure, wonderful landscape that can attract foreign talent, the Government's market-friendly policies and various other market-based incentives," he said.

California-based Actis specialises in biopharmaceutical research to discover, develop and commercialise healthcare-related products.

Other than developing its own technologies and patents, Actis also licenses-in technologies from various research institutions and works with entrepreneurs to help utilise its portfolio of technology platforms for commercialisation.

Actis owns 51 patents in biotechnology and diagnostic sectors.

Actis does not do any drug discovery. Instead, it licenses promising drugs that have cleared early stages of human trials from either universities or biopharmaceutical firms in the US after a due diligence by its own scientific team.