Stan Yakatan: The paradigm shifter

Stan Yakatan, "US venture capital raising guru" and strategic biotechnology adviser to the Victorian government, sits at a table in The Westin Melbourne's Allegro restaurant surrounded by breakfast, documents and five chairs intermittently filled and vacated biotech movers and shakers.

There's BioComm Services chief executive Dr Andy Gearing, AusBiotech's Dr Anthony Coulepis and waiting in the foyer is Dr Geoff Brooke from Rothschild Bioscience Managers.

There are people from the government's Science, Technology and Innovation unit, people from Macquarie Bank and staff from the Melbourne headquarters of Yakatan's company, .

And there are people constantly trying to reach the gregarious American on the mobile phone that is switched off on the table in front of him.

Yakatan is in Australia for nine days, splitting his time between Sydney and Melbourne, in a whirlwind visit that sees him donning several hats.

Since January 2001 he has been biotech adviser to the Bracks government, reviewing and recommending strategies, networking internationally on Victoria's behalf and assisting the organisation of the state's annual commercialisation conference.

He is chairman of Victorian-based business development agency BioComm Services and is on the organising committee for AusBiotech's annual meeting, to be held in August.

He is also busy expanding the local business interests of Katan Associates, which set up its Asia-Pacific base in Melbourne last September.

According to his web site, Yakatan has founded or co-founded nine companies and served as CEO, chairman or president in seven, not to mention involvement on numerous boards.

Over the years he has raised more than $US200 million through private and public financing and is described in an oft-quoted Lab Business magazine article as a "US venture capital raising guru" for whom raising venture capital is part of his genetic make-up.

So it's little wonder the Victorian government snapped him up to consult it on how best to drive the burgeoning Aussie biotech sector.

High on his priority list during his visit down under will be securing further funding for the BioComm Services capital pool.

He said BioComm, with member institutes including Monash University, Baker Medical Research Institute, RMIT University, Mental Health Research Institute and Macfarlane Burnet Centre among others, had exclusive access to the IP coming out of these groups and was working to commercialise about 40 projects.

"Out of these I would say that with at least half a dozen we are talking with potential international partners and/or investors," Yakatan said.

He said two or three of the projects were past the halfway mark in the commercialisation time line.

Last month, listed investment fund BioTech Capital announced it had entered an agreement to pour up to $3 million into BioComm.

Yakatan said BioComm was also in final discussions with at least four other groups who would each invest $2 to $3 million, as well as a couple of smaller investors.

He also said Macquarie Bank had been retained as the company's financial partner.

"This will help us create a capital pool that would be used to develop both new companies from our members and to out-license opportunities from our members, and that capital pool will be approximately $15 million," Yakatan said.

"We're also in discussion with at least three worldwide venture capital groups about being international partners in the capital pool for BioComm."

The drive for private funding is paramount according to Yakatan, who said he was often criticised for his belief that Australian biotech firms went public too early.

"I believe that the community doesn't support early-stage biotech companies far enough on a private basis, and that then forces them to seek capital in public markets," he says.

"Once a company is public it is forced to create a sustained value, and the nature of the biotech industry really suggests that companies wait until the later stage of development to list.

"This is one of reasons I have come out here, and it is something we hope to change with the formation of the BioComm capital pool."

He said Australia also needed to realise biotech was an international business attained through international capital and partnering.

"The paradigm shift I am working on is to try to broaden the globalisation of Australian biotech," Yakatan said.