SA`s fledgling biotechnology industry received a welcome boost yesterday, following the launch in Johannesburg of the first of three regional centres to drive the commercialisation of biotechnology.
The Gauteng initiative, known as the Biotechnology Partnerships and Development (BioPAD), will be followed by two other Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centres (BRICs) based in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The science and technology department has earmarked about R400 million over the next three years for the three regional centres, of which R135 million is expected to go to BioPAD.
According to the organisation`s acting CEO, professor Eugene Cloete, a distinctive feature of the initiative is the diversity of its consortium members and the commitment of each consortium to work collaboratively.
He says each has proposed ways in which it can benefit from the resources of partner institutions and they have made plans to exchange biological specimens, physical resources and personnel.
"This collaborative spirit promises to link the components of the consortia, leverage their respective skills and more closely integrate researchers who have traditionally worked in isolation.
"The fundamental purpose of BioPAD is to deepen the understanding of modern biotechnology and its uses, imparting a vision that reaches from the basic sciences to their applications."
According to Dr Paul Abrahams, CEO of the eGoliBIO Life Sciences Incubator, each BRIC has to have an incubator associated with it, and eGoliBIO has signed a memorandum of understanding with BioPAD that promises to be mutually beneficial.
"While BioPAD is based in Johannesburg, its projects come from academic institutions in a number of different provinces, and some will require the services of an incubator. eGoliBIO will provide a commercialisation route for these projects."
As part of BioPAD`s commitment to the commercialisation of biotechnology, the initiative will invest R5 million in eGoliBIO. These funds will be used to raise collateral investments for enabling start-up companies to roll-out new technologies.
"While cynics would say that with the global biotechnology market worth about R365 billion, the R400 million allocated to our sector by the department is just a drop in the ocean; one needs to remember that our industry is still in its infancy and this kind of monetary injection is a brilliant kick-start for biotechnology in SA," says Abrahams.
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