Australian biotech looking ‘healthy’ as it gathers for AusBiotech 2012

The AusBiotech 2012 national conference has again showcased the great talent and intellectual capital within Australia’s biotechnology industry.

The AusBiotech 2012 national conference has again showcased the great talent and intellectual capital within Australia’s biotechnology industry. This year’s conference, held in Melbourne last week, was another outstanding success with great support from local and international delegates, investors, exhibitors and speakers.

The event, supported by the Victorian Government and opened by the Minister for Technology, the Honourable Gordon Rich-Phillips, attracted 1,234 participants across the events that make up the national conference. The event attracted 150 international visitors to Victoria from 25 countries, with the largest delegations from the USA, New Zealand the UK and Singapore.

The Business Matching Program was the big draw card once again with 2,609 meeting requests. Booths were at full capacity throughout the event, resulting in more than 460 meetings on the Wednesday alone.

The meeting with its key theme ‘Realising the Value’ has again given us the opportunity to share information and ideas, to forge new relationships; and to work together towards a more prosperous and sustainable industry.

The sessions have played host to a wide variety of thought-provoking and informative topics with 85 speakers, 20 of whom travelled from overseas, across a range of disciplines from human health to food safety, agricultural biotech to medtech.

In related events, 50 people attended the three BioPro Courses offered, 91 attended the public forum ‘Re-seeing the Future’, 136 attended the AusFoodtech Symposium and 399 attended the conference dinner, which was addressed by His Excellency, the honourable Alex Chernov AC QC, the Governor of Victoria.

For the fourth year running AusBiotech hosted the Australasian Life Sciences Investment Summit (ALSIS), which was attended by 280 people, of which 150 were investors from 60 companies and almost 40 per cent were international visitors who were here to find out more about 40 of Australia’s most promising biotechnology investment opportunities.

ALSIS attendee Julie Phillips, CEO of showcased company BioDiem, said: “The Summit was a great chance to catch-up with colleagues, meet some new faces and share some ideas. It was a particularly good opportunity to showcase BioDiem with a large number of prospective investors.”

Marc Sinatra, analyst at Lodge Partners, said: “AusBiotech is always a good opportunity to catch up with the industry associates and meet new contacts from overseas. Australian biotechnology looks very healthy. It was heartening to see the very strong unlisted companies in the industry pipeline, as well as the maturing listed ones.”

“ALSIS is a great way to find new investment opportunities and catch-up on ones you haven’t seen for a while. It’s rare to get so many of the life-sciences investment community together, and I think attendees made the most of it.”