by
N ew South Wales (NSW) is
Australia's largest State and has the highest number of biotechnology companies, 40 percent of which have been derived as spin-offs from research institutions. Almost one-third of
Australia's biotechnology firms have originated in NSW, most of these located in Sydney, the capital city, and its surrounding regions. Sydney is the home base of 75 percent of Australia's venture capital managers and 85 percent of the finance pool. It has excellent infrastructure, good transport systems and a workforce that is skilled internationally.
One-quarter of NSW's biotechnology firms have been established to develop diagnostic products, followed by a further 15 percent aimed at the human therapeutics markets. There are also significant numbers of firms in plant agriculture and animal biotechnology, and Australia's first bioinformatics firm.
NSW is also home to the majority of
Australia's pharmaceutical companies, giving Sydney a strong presence in the general therapeutics market.
Sydney's largest biotech firms are
Johnson & Johnson Research Pty. Ltd.,
Aza Research Pty. Ltd. and Peptech Ltd.
Johnson & Johnson Research Pty. Ltd.
is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson
Inc. in the US. The Johnson & Johnson
(J&J) group of companies develops and markets consumer products, medical devices, biomaterials, diagnostic pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products.
J&J Research has established and developed a research institute in Sydney focussed on gene therapy, bringing together existing projects within the group. From August this year the firm will be located in the purpose-built
Biomedical Building at the Australian
Technology Park in Eveleigh.
Aza Research Pty. Ltd. is a joint venture between Eli Lilly and the Garvan
Institute of Medical Research. Aza has exclusive rights to market and sell
Eli Lilly's range of insulin, growth hormone and other endocrine products in Australia. Aza's best product is
Humalog, which is the first ever rapidacting analogue of human insulin, launched in 1996 and acclaimed by
Australian medical practitioners.
Humalog was developed using sophisticated genetic engineering techniques and has a faster rate of absorption, quicker action and shorter duration of activity than other insulin available in the Australian market.
Aza invests profits from these activities in further medical research in Australia.
It currently has research programs in diabetes and osteoporosis at the
Garvan Institute plus over 10 additional research, clinical and education grants around Australia. To date, this research has already developed new understandings of glucose transport and has developed advantage transgenic models for osteoporosis.
The company's goal is to become a selfsustaining, integrated biotechnology company, based on commercialization of Australian medical research. The success of the joint venture was recognized in 1997 when Aza Research was awarded an Arthur Andersen
Enterprise Award for building strategic alliances.
Peptech Ltd. was established as a spinoff from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) in the mid-1980s. It has grown to a firm with a turnover of approximately A$14 million (US$9.3
million) and produces a range of products targeted at both the veterinary and human therapeutic markets. In 1998,
Peptech Ltd. received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) for sale of its veterinary product Ovuplant in the US, which is capable of delivering dulorelin, an analogue of the peptide hormone gonadotrophin releasing hormone, in a way that this his approval marked the first time that a drug developed entirely in Australia had passed the FDA approval process. Ovuplant is being distributed by Fort Dodge Animal
Health, which is a subsidiary of
American Home Products. Ovuplant is also sold in Australia, New Zealand,
Canada and Argentina.
There are many smaller firms working in diagnostics. One of the leaders is
Cellabs (see pp. 367–368), which produces a range of state of the art diagnostic products. Cellabs has deliberately targeted parasitic and infectious diseases, many of which occur in Asia. Cellab's staff manufacture highly specialized immunodiagnostic
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ASIA-PACIFIC
BI TECH tests for the diagnosis of infectious diseases such as malaria, hepatitis C, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, trachoma, filariasis and amoebic dysentery.
The company sees opportunities for expansion of its range of diagnostic kits for tropical diseases and believes that its market will grow substantially.
Cellabs exports 90 percent of its product to over 50 countries through an established network of international distributors. It is the longest surviving independent biotechnology company in NSW.
The NSW government is also promoting the skills of a number of leading
Australian technology-based firms through the Australian Technology
Showcase. This web-based promotion is also supported by Austrade, the
Department of Industry, Science and
Resources and 12 of the official sponsors for the year 2000 Sydney
Olympics. Biotechnology Companies featured in the Showcase include:
• Bio-Care Technology Pty. Ltd., which has developed a unique biocontrol agent aimed at crown gall — caused by a bacterium which lives in the soil;
• Technico Pty. Ltd., which has developed Technituber advanced seed potato technology that can reduce the number of field generations required to produce economic volumes of seed potatoes. Technico has also developed post-harvesting technology which promotes sprout development of field planted Technituber seed. Technituber production facilities are planned for completion in China, India and
Europe during 1998/99;
• Australasian Genetic & Chemical
Technologies Pty. Ltd., which has developed a range of products that combines genetics and information technology to support secure authentication in electronic commerce. The firm's products include genetic encryption, genetic data digitizing and DNA banking;
• Elastomedic, which commercializes technology developed at the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for
Cardiac Research. This CRC has developed a synthetic material which combines the best qualities of both polyurethane and silicon for development of implantable devices. The material, Elast-Eon, is currently being evaluated for use as a small bore vascular graft and other applications;
• Cellabs, described above.
This commercial activity in New
South Wales is supported by a number of large research institutions, also based in Sydney. Over one-quarter of
Australia's universities are in NSW and government institutions such as the CSIRO have a major presence. The strength of the local research systems gives local companies access to highly trained technical staff and provides a pool of basic and applied research that companies can draw upon for basic development.
Taken together, NSW-based universities perform just over 20 percent of genetics
R&D in Australia, as measured using data from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics. The leading universities for these activities are based in Sydney, with the University of NSW ranked first, followed by the University of
Sydney, and Macquarie University.
Macquarie University manages the
Centre for Proteome Research which was established in 1996 and focuses on identifying and analyzing protein components in cells.
Sydney also has several major medical research institutions which perform world-class biotechnology-related R&D.
These include the Garvan Institute of
Medical Research and the Centenary
Institute for Cancer Research. The
Garvan institute is the only medical research institute in NSW to have been awarded a prestigious block grant by the National Health and Medical
Research Council. The Institute’s block funding status was renewed in 1997 and represents a validation of the quality and quantity of the Garvan's scientific achievements.
The Garvan Institute has major programs in diabetes, growth hormones, breast and prostate cancers, mental illnesses and osteoporosis. Many of these are supported by commercial alliances with both Australian firms and those based overseas. In addition to its
51 percent ownership of the Aza
Research joint venture, the institute has launched a spin-off company, Psygene, to research development of therapeutics for mental illnesses.
This year, the institute has established a new program on arthritis and inflammation and will be working on the role of cytokines and cell signaling in this field. Together with Sydney
University's Institute for Respiratory
Medicine, Monash University and the
University of Western Australia, the institute has recently been awarded a grant of A$45million (US$29.7 million) to help establish one of four new CRCs.
The collaboration will focus on asthma clinical management and novel disease therapy.
This CRC program is a centerpiece of the Australian Government's research and industry policy. There are 67
CRCs in a range of key sectors where
Australia has world-leading research.
Over half of these have programs in biotechnology and, of these, almost half the funding flows to NSW-based research institutions. The main focus of these activities in NSW is environment management, followed by therapeutics and agriculture.
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University Key Centers Type of Center
University New South
Wales
Macquarie University
Food Industry Development
Membrane Science and Technology
Food Industry Innovation
Key centers
Special research centre
CRC
Waste Management
Eye Research
CRC
CRC
Biodiversity and Bioresources Key centre
Conservation and Management of Marsupials CRC
University of New England Cattle and Beef Industry
University of Sydney Asthma
University of Technology,
Sydney
Aquaculture
CRC
CRC
CRC
Sources: DIST (1996); CRC Compendium 1996 and its Addendum on 5th Round Centres (1997); ARC (1997): A Guide
to the Research Centres Scheme 1997 DEETYA, Canberra; and 1999 press release on new CRCs.
The other major public sector research activities in biotechnology are located in the CSIRO. The CSIRO Molecular
Science group has a major laboratory at North Ryde, close to Macquarie
University and near most Sydneybased pharmaceutical firms and many biotechnology firms. This CSIRO group works in gene therapy, genetic aspects of cancer, diabetes, biomaterials and development of new diagnostic reagents and assay formulations. The
CSIRO has established an industrial park on its site and this has attracted a number of biotechnology-related firms. Several CSIRO spin-off firms including Bioquest Ltd. are also located adjacent to this site.
Aza Research Pty. Ltd.: Ms. Anne Familton, managing director, 112 Wharf
Road, West Ryde NSW 2112 Australia, Telephone +61 2 9325 4563;
Peptech Ltd.: Locked Bag 2053 North Ryde NSW 2113,
Telephone +61 9870 8788, http://www.peptech.com
;
Johnson & Johnson Research Pty. Ltd.: Mr. Tad Bohdanowicz, business manager, Locked Bag 2007, St Leonards NSW 2065, Telephone +61 9437 8911;
Cellabs Pty. Ltd.: Dr. Tony Smithyman, managing director,
Telephone: +61 2 9905 0133, http://www.cellabs.com.au
;
Garvan Institute of Medical Research: Dr. Jon Izant, director of business development, Telephone + 61 2 92958118, http:/www.garvan.unsw.edu.au
;
Australian Technology Showcase: http://www.198.142.17.112/tech.
Ms. Lyndal Thorburn is the director of Advance Consulting and Evaluation Pty.
Ltd., P O Box 629, Queanbeyan NSW 2620, Australia; Tel.: 61 (0) 2 6297 2438;
Mobile: 018 432 871; Fax: +61 (0) 2 6297 2203; E-mail: advance@cyberone.com.au
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