Malaysia offers leading edge for biotech in Asia
Two years into an ambitious effort to build a biotech cluster for Malaysia, Azwan Ariffin, Vice President for Marketing at BioTechCorp from Kuala Lumpur said he always needs to start with the basics.
“A lot of people have trouble recalling where we are, let alone what we are doing in biotechnology,” he said.
Yet once potential partners are oriented, a new world of opportunities opens, he said.
“For partners ready to move out of the traditional club of the western industrial world, Malaysia presents wonderful opportunities.,” said Ariffin. “We have tremendous research capabilities in our universities, a rich biodiversity both on the land and the sea, and we are an English-speaking country with a well educated workforce.”
On Tuesday, Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, the CEO for Biotechcorp, made the case for Malaysia during an International Seminar at BIO-Europe 2007 in Hamburg.
BiotechCorp is the lead agency for the Malaysia’s biotech development, and if fully empowered to act as a one-stop center to fast-track foreign companies setting up operations there.
Among the guarantees contracted with partners are an environment enabling accreditation to international standards, intellectual property protection and enforcement comparable to global standards, access to a supportive information networks linking research centers of excellence, and access to shared labs, facilities and services.
The goal for the program driven by Biotechcorp is to establish 100 biotech companies with total investments around $8 billion by 2020 and, not incidentally, the creation of 280,000 jobs.
Currently there are 39 “BIONEXUS companies” established under the program, three of which are foreign. As of the first of 2007, some 246 registered Good Manufacturing Practice certified pharmaceutical companies were located in Malaysia.
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