18 October 2011 -- Investors and guests from around the world have arrived in Adelaide for tomorrow’s AusBiotech Australasian Life Sciences Investment Summit, attracted by the showcase of 40 of the best local biotechnology companies.
“If there were an Olympic Games for biotechnology, Australia would be in the medals, says Dr Anna Lavelle, CEO of AusBiotech. “And this is, quite rightly, attracting increasing attention from investors globally.”
“Even in the face of the global financial crisis, continuing volatility and such a small population, Australia has a biotechnology sector that is a maturing, fast-growing sector that was recently ranked number five globally by Scientific American’s World View.”
The Australian biotech sector has outperformed the ASX 300 consistently since 2009 and now Australia can also boast it has the largest listed biotechnology sector as a proportion of GDP in the world.
“These metrics are indicating internationally that we are a country that can take discoveries through the innovation process to commercialisation, and to value inflection points that is of great interest to investors,” said Dr Lavelle.
The Summit, the biggest investment event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, has brought international and Australian investors to South Australia’s doorstep, creating the potential for millions of dollars in new investment in the local life sciences industry.
There is a range of listed and start-up companies presenting with varied development strategies. Smart partnering strategies have also established licensing and royalty streams for companies taking part in the summit such as Acrux or Bionomics, which have leveraged these partnerships to secure entry into diverse markets or de-risk developmental programs.
At the same time other companies at the Summit such as QRxPharma, now in the midst of FDA approval for their lead pain-killing compound, have successfully navigated the waters of solo development through smart science and cleaving to development of their core offering. These examples show that there are many attractive opportunities present in the sector.
Scott Power, a technology and healthcare analyst with RBS Morgans, which is sponsoring the Summit, says: “This event is a great opportunity for Australian life science companies to meet with investors that have a genuine interest in the sector, and as always good projects will find funding—this is an opportunity to match investors with good quality projects.” The audience features an excellent mix of national and international investors, including angel investors, venture capitalists, fund managers, investment bankers and representatives from superannuation funds. The audience also includes venture capital arms of the major pharmaceutical companies from Australia, Asia Pacific, North America and Europe looking to bolster their challenged product pipelines.
Presenting companies will be a mix of listed late-stage development, private companies with identified product opportunities and companies in early-stage commercialisation spun out from research institutes and universities. The event is part of the Asia Pacific’s premier biotechnology conference for the Asia Pacific region, AusBiotech 2011, being held in Adelaide October 16-19.
For further information visit http://ausbiotech2011.com.au/alsis-home
AusBiotech 2011 is the annual conference of AusBiotech and the premier biotechnology and life sciences conference for Australia and the Asia-Pacific, attracting over 1,100 delegates from across the world each year and is renowned for its agenda-setting programs.
