do super funds need to buy more???????????????????

(PRR Is a Victorian based biotech...)

Call for urgent action in biotech push
By Rebecca Urban
June 16, 2005
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Drip-fed: Australia's investment in venture capital is one of the lowest among the developed countries.

Drip-fed: Australia's investment in venture capital is one of the lowest among the developed countries.

Victoria will fail to become a global leader in biotechnology unless superannuation funds invest in venture capital - and soon.

A report that the Committee for Melbourne will release today zeroes in on the funds management industry and its lack of expertise and confidence when investing in life-science ventures.

A taskforce set up by the influential lobby group has found that the difficulty biotechnology companies have in sourcing capital is not because of a funds shortage but rather a shortage of institutions willing to invest.

The Victorian Government - which is sending up to 130 politicians, bureaucrats, scientists and industry representatives to an international biotech conference in the US this week - has pumped more than $320 million into the sector over five years.

The Government's objective is to create one of the world's premier biotech hubs.

The taskforce's recommendations, submitted to the Federal Government for its review of the venture capital industry, include:

· Providing incentives, such as grants, for large funds to invest in the venture capital industry.
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· Setting up an independent centre for biotechnology analysis, which financial institutions could access to help them better understand the sector.

· Encouraging venture capitalists and fund managers to join biotechnology company boards.

· Building a database of expatriates with offshore experience available to venture capitalists, biotech companies and other industry players, and supporting some of them to return home.

· Encouraging reputable offshore venture capitalists to move to Victoria, and increasing the experience of local fund managers by offering scholarships to work at international companies.

Australia's investment in venture capital is believed to be among the lowest for developed countries.

Committee for Melbourne chairman George Pappas said Victoria had a great depth of research and development, and did a creditable job spinning out companies from universities and research institutes.

"However, the absence of a mature venture capital industry hampers the growth of new business," Mr Pappas said.

He said that that although the industry would mature over time, it might be too late.

"We have to put serious incentives to the people with the money so that realistically we can deal with the barriers they face, which are they're conservative by nature and they're also concerned about past performance," he said.

"On top of that, they're concerned about the depth of expertise and knowledge in their own funds, their analysts, the advisers, the venture capital industry and the biotechs."

The report suggests giving grants to superannuation funds if they invest at least $10 million in a new venture capital fund.

The taskforce's next step is to meet an expert panel set up by the Federal Government as part of its review.

The findings and recommendations stemmed from interviews with more than 30 people.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Call-for-urgent-action-in-biotech-push/2005/06/15/1118645871840.html