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455APBN • Vol. 11 • No. 8 • 2007
www.asiabiotech.com Biotechnology in Malaysia and Thailand
With highly skilled staff, world class-technologies, reliable infrastructure, good regulatory policies, low costs, government and private sector innovation
and an abundance of competitively priced raw materials in agriculture, Malaysian is one of the most attractive locations for global biotechnology investment. International free trade has been a top priority for many Asian countries since early 2000. The number of significant international investments in the Asian biotechnology sector has doubled in the past few years. The incidence of niche partnerships for drug developments and agricultural trade has increased, particularly with the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand companies. These major markets are looking more and more to Malaysia as a genuine source of innovation to achieve their business objectives for the development of global biotechnology products and outsourcing of their technology and product development. The Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries has been working on a free trade to create a consistent, predictable production base across the region to attract foreign investment.
Malaysia is trying to become a global hub for biomedical sciences and agricultural sectors. Malaysia is aiming to develop a pharmaceutical hub consisting pharmaceuticals, medical
SnapshotDr Robin Mitra and Dr Morley Somasundaram Muralitharan
of Malaysian Biotechnology
456 APBN • Vol. 11 • No. 8 • 2007
www.asiabiotech.com Biotechnology in Malaysia and Thailand
technology, biotechnology and healthcare services. Strong government financial support, presence of multinationals, free trade agreements, world class infrastructure and good regulatory policies are the strengths of the upcoming Malaysian biotechnology sectors.
In addition, Malaysia’s agricultural biotechnology research doubled through a number of world class recognized research institutes to promote higher and better quality of rubber, oil palm and agricultural commodities. Malaysian biotechnology also has the enormous capability to develop products from its vast natural resources including tropical rainforest for use in human and animal healthcare, increased food production, environmental sustainability and monitoring. Malaysian private biotechnology sector consists of small to medium sized companies with a handful of larger plantation companies developing very strong research and development activities for their own crops. Malaysia is also looking into conducting clinical trials for other global companies and this outsourcing activity has great potential to attract foreign investment to the Malaysian by 2015.
Malaysian government has made biotechnology as a top priority. Malaysia declared her intention to become a serious player in biotechnology at the launch of the National Biotechnology Policy in April 2005. Malaysian government made a significant allocation of RM2 billion (US$584 million) for biotechnology-related activities under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006–2010). Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, biotechnology and biotechnology-related companies in Malaysia is expected to double to 400 by 2010. Due to the enormous potential of Asian biotechnology, it is widely expected that Malaysia will become a global biotechnology hub for agriculture, pharmaceuticals, natural production, genomics, proteomics, biofermentation and environmental biotechnology by 2015.
Contact Details:Dr Robin Mitra Lecturer in Biotechnology, Monash University MalaysiaAddress: School of Arts and Sciences,2 Jalan Kolej, Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya PO Box 8975, 46780 Kelana Jaya Selangor Darul Ehsan, MalaysiaEmail: [email protected]
Dr Morley Somasundaram MuralitharanAssociate Head (Development) and Senior Lecturer in BiotechnologyAddress: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3217, AustraliaEmail: [email protected]
