Biotopya entrepreneurs blitz awards, sell company

A company formed as part of the Victorian Biotechnology Entrepreneur Program, a pilot program of Young Achievers Australia and the Victorian State Government, has returned a whopping 900 per cent to its shareholders, through the sale of its products to a scientific supplies company.

Biotopya, which was formed by 25 students at La Trobe University, developed laminated pocket-sized quick reference guides for laboratory use as well as pre-printed, smudge-proof, self-adhesive labels for chemical bottles.

According to company spokesperson Vino Pillay, now a postdoc at the Genomic Disorders Research Centre, the company sold hundreds of the Quickie reference guides and thousands of Lab-Stick labels, before selling the products to local scientific products company Scientifix.

Biotopya won three awards at a ceremony held last week to mark the completion of the program, including Best Business Plan, Best Annual Report and Best Company.

The Best Product category was won by Scyantics, a company started by students at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, who developed an educational awareness CD-ROM for cancer patients that is the subject of distribution negotiations with the Cancer Council of Victoria and Biotechnology Australia.

And Best Marketing and Media Exposure was won by University of Melbourne team Genya, for promoting their calendar featuring scientific images while participating in the televised National IQ Test.

The Victorian Biotechnology Entrepreneur Program required teams of university students to establish and register a company, develop a product and sell the product, all within a concentrated business cycle of 13 weeks. Business, industry and technical mentors were provided to the teams to help them navigate their way through the process.

Seven teams entered the competition with six of them making it through to the end. Among the other companies and products developed were lab coats featuring a logo and functional features by WEHI team Yabi, a histology starter kit developed and marketed by Monash team Yamu, and a networking-friendly dinner and ball organised by University of Melbourne team Bioeventya.

Dividends ranged from 2.5 per cent to 900 per cent, and two start-up companies were generated.

Presenting the awards, Innovation Minister John Brumby said he thought the program had been a fantastic success.

"If we are to develop entrepreneurial flair in our biotechnology researchers we need to expose them to the realities market research, capital raising, budgets and shareholder demands," Brumby said.

"That is one of the reasons for the Government supporting this new Victorian Biotechnology Entrepreneur Program."

Pillay said participation in the program had given her a taste for success.

"It really helped me understand the commercial aspects of research," she said.