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AgBiotech & Environment

The Prime Minister continued to voice his support for agriculture, stressing that the government’s focus was not a retrogressive move. In fact, the PM believes that the sector should be given great focus as it may withstand all economic crises. Similarly, with the increase in the price of goods and recent inflation, agriculture may just be the solution to reduce other costs like food import.
 
Similarly, in line with the renewed importance of agriculture under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, Kelantan hopes to obtain a slice of the pie by attracting graduates to venture into the sector there. According to state Agriculture committee chairman, Nik Mazain, the tight job market, more may be encouraged to study agriculture and biotechnology. Hence more awareness campaigns and incentives would be put forward by the state to woo these fresh grads.
 
In other news, a new bird sub-species has been discovered in Sarawak, despite the bird-flu scare. The subspecies of the Rhinomyias jungle flycatcher was discovered in 1996, but its discovery has only been announced in a recent journal by the Sarawak museum department. The bird was trapped by ornithologist Slim Sreedharan, associate of the Sarawak Museum.
  
             
Food & Health

Food irradiation, the use of ionizing radiation to sterilize or preserve food, may just be the crucial tool that may potentially assist the food sector meet sanitary requirments. Though the mere mention of the term may incite negative thoughts among the public, the Deputy Prime Minister implied that it has the potential to be an invaluable tool to the industry. Among the unique advantages of the technology, it is chemical-free and is also able to treat food in its frozen form.

In other news, the recent discovery of the H5N1 strain in Gombak has raised much alarm. The Government has confirmed that the virus found in the dead poultry is similar to the strain that has struck Indonesia lately. In an effort to prevent the virus from spreading, more than 800 poultry were culled within a one kilometer radius of the bird-flu hit area and screenings were conducted within a ten kilometer radius.
The Government would be injecting RM 1 million for research into determining the source of the recent HFMD disease outbreak. According the Health Minister, Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek, with relations to government concerns over the appearance of the disease in Sibu, funds would be allocated in hopes to identify the root cause. Researcher of UniMaS Dr. Jane Cardosa believes that the outbreak may be related to water quality or virus content of the Sungai Rejang.
Investment & Industry
June will mark Malaysia’s biotechnological foray into the drug industry as the country’s first biopharmaceutical plant will be ready then. The RM 100 million plant, located in Nilai, will be aimed at lessening the country’s drug import bills amounting to RM 2 billion last year. The plant is owned by Ministry of Finance Inc-owned Inno Bioventures and is the second such complex in Asia after Singapore’s A-Biopharma.
 

With the recent surge in interest in biodiesel, Carotech is seen further throwing its weight into the venture by investing RM155m to raise biodiesel output. Carotech will be investing in two plants in Chemor and Lumut Industrial Estate. The Lumut plant would have a daily capacity of 300 tonnes while the plant in Chemor would be seen churning out 90 tonnes soon.

    
TH Group unit, Asiaprise Biotech Sdn. Bhd. will be seen investing in Alpha Biologics, acquiring a 39.47% stake. The acquisition is generally focused on growth in the part of TH Group. It will enable Asiaprise extend its reach further into the biotechnology industry with focus on monoclonal antibody manufacturing with mammalian cell cultures.
  
In other news, Kumpulan Hartanah is planning to develop a Peripheral Biovalley near the proposed Biovalley Malaysia. The 120ha proposed project costs RM 500 million, and focused on providing “support development” to the national BioValley scheme with infrastructure, residential, educational, recreational and business facilities.
Policy & Trade
Malaysia is no doubt a country with great talents and brain, as numerous research and breakthroughs by researchers can stand witness. However, these breakthroughs are having trouble reaching the mass market with a lack of talent and know-how in marketing skills among them. Unless private companies and the industry are willing to come forth to help our researchers commercialise findings, these wonderful inventions that may change our lives may just have to be shelved. Hence, in a bid to ensure commercialization may be realized, MOSTI will be including commercialization packages with R&D grants.
 
Carotech is seen profiting greatly in a landmark biodiesel deal which would have them export US$40 million worth of methyl ester to Japan in the coming two years. This move pushes them to the forefront being the country’s first biodiesel exporter. The shipment would be taken up by Hatakeyama Oil Corp of Japan.