April 27, 2004
Source:
New Zealand Herald via
BioScience NEWS
The fledgling
biotechnology sector could get a significant shot in the arm
from a $100 million investment fund planned by the commercial
division of the Government science agency AgResearch.
AgResearch-owned Celentis
is working with venture capital specialist Direct Capital to
raise the private investment money.
Celentis Chief Executive Stewart Washer said the aim was to
attract investors from Australasia and Singapore to quality
science projects from the region.
Celentis was a machine that had outgrown the flow of
intellectual property coming from AgResearch, he said.
It made sense to use it as a vehicle for biotechnology ventures
from other sources in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.
"In terms of the Celentis mandate, what we're doing is exactly
what we were set up to do," he said.
"We're a bridge between Government-funded research and private
equity and we're bringing private equity closer to the CRIs
[crown research institutes] and universities with things like
this."
The strong track record that Celentis has in commercialising its
own biotechnology will be used to attract investors to the fund,
which is still in the early stages.
Celentis controls nine successful subsidiary companies that have
grown out of AgResearch science projects.
They include animal vaccine company AgVax and smart fertiliser
company EnCoate.
The new fund - called Life Science Ventures - would be designed
to invest in projects at all phases of commercial development,
from pre-seed projects still in the lab through to those almost
ready for the market.
In the past people had been deterred from investing in life
science because it was sometimes difficult to understand and to
do accurate due diligence on, Washer said.
Celentis hoped to address this by using its skills to assess
scientific projects and evaluate their investment potential.
"We've built up a unique team across New Zealand and Australia
in terms of being able to analyse early stage biotech," Washer
said.
Once investments were made Celentis would provide skills to
advise on commercialisation and steer the projects at a high
level, he said.
The Life Science Ventures fund is likely to secure large
foundation investors before opening up to the wider investment
sector.
Washer yesterday announced his resignation as Chief Executive of
Celentis to return to Australia but said he planned to stay on
until the plans for the fund and the framework for Celentis' new
commercial direction were settled.
Last week Celentis announced the new direction saying that it
would consider widening the company's shareholder base beyond
AgResearch.
BACKGROUND: Celentis Ltd.
* The commercial arm of Crown research company AgResearch.
* Aimed at commercialising science in three areas - animal drug
delivery, neutriceuticals, and food industry measurement
systems.
* Owns stakes in nine companies: AgVax, BioProducts, EnCoate,
ComOne, Clone International, Grasslanz, Sastek, SpectraNet, Time
Capsule.
* Based Maritime Sq, Auckland, New Zealand.
* Chief executive: Dr Stewart Washer.
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