imi are posted in melbourne.......... Ambitious plan to turn...

imi are posted in melbourne..........


Ambitious plan to turn Melbourne into global biotech capital

Nick Evans
Tuesday, 16 October 2007

VICTORIA will be home to 10 biotechnology companies worth more than $250 million each in the next three years, and the state's biotech firms will raise more than $1 billion worth of capital in the same period if the Victorian industry meets the ambitious targets laid out in the latest version of the State Government's Biotechnology Strategic Development Plan, launched yesterday.



Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings

The new biotechnology blueprint is intended to reinforce Victoria's position as one of the world's top five biotechnology locations, according to Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings.

"These are ambitious targets but they are achievable. Six of our companies are already over the $250 million threshold with another six on the way," he said.

"Our companies have secured more than $4 billion in deals in the past three years and are now spending more than $500 million per annum, reflecting the maturity of the sector."

The blueprint was warmly received by industry, with AusBiotech chief executive Dr Anna Lavelle praising the Victorian Government for its commitment to the industry which she said "far exceeded that of any other state".

"In just six years the Victorian Government has committed a massive $2 billion to investment in science, technology and innovation," she said.

"This commitment has generated significant returns – in 2006-07, Victorian companies raised $387 million or 43% of the total $902 million raised by Australian life science firms.

"Impressive figures and evidence of a commitment that far exceeds any other state."

And the Victorian Government clearly sees the sector as integral to the state's future – not just as a stand-alone research and manufacturing industry, but as a key driver for the rest of the state's economy.

Lavelle said that Australia's biotech sector particularly welcomed this emphasis on a broader definition of biotechnology, a recognition that biotech crosses more than the medical and agricultural fields.

"The review makes it clear that Premier Brumby, always a great champion of Victorian biotechnology as innovation minister, sees the sector as crossing, and influencing, everything from ecology to climate change, alternative fuels to new medical devices," she said.

"Essentially Victorian biotechnology is no longer a sector on its own converting some of our major research breakthroughs into therapies – it is a sector that has the potential to provide solutions to most of our man-made problems."

Targets

The revised three-year plan promises the state's support for an ambitious new set of goals for the state's sector to be achieved by 2010, including:



Ten Victorian firms to achieve a market capitalisation of over $250 million;



$1 billion capital to be raised by the Victorian biotechnology sector;



Two major cross-sectoral projects initiated that address the impacts of climate change through the use of biotechnology applications in the agricultural and industrial sectors;



Five new significant international projects facilitated; and



Victoria will have established a biomarker system with the capability to adopt new technology in an ethical and equitable framework.