Expat's big plans to improve Anglo-Aussie ties

Expatriate Australian Dr John Sime is headed back to Australia next January, with plans to improve the links between the Australian and the British biotechnology industries.

"It has occurred to me that UK and Australia are drifting too far apart. There are a lot of synergies that could be captured that haven't been," Sime says. He cites stem cell research as an area of research and development activities that can be done far more easily in Australia and the UK than in the USA, for example.

"We should be collaborating madly to retain our advantage," he says.

And the UK can form a bridge into the European market, which Sime says is tough to get into.

"One of the messages I am anxious to put forward is that when developing a company, one shouldn't be limited to the boundaries of Australia," he says. Australian companies shouldn't be deterred from accessing the London VC and capital markets, and should be aware of the skills available in the UK. Conversely he sees Australia's strengths in R&D as providing opportunities for partnerships, licensing and collaboration with the UK.

"It should be a much more complementary relationship," Sime says.

Sime has had a long history in the biopharmaceutical industry, working for Beecham Research Laboratories, which later became SmithKline Beecham and subsequently GlaxoSmithKline. While he spent much of his career overseas, he had a 10-year stint as managing director of Beecham Australia, and as managing director of the merged SmithKline Beecham operations.

Currently, he is the director of research support and development at Imperial College, London, where he has been involved in commercialisation of the intellectual property generated by the institution.

"Over the last five years or so... around 60 companies have been generated, about a third of them biotechnology," Sime says. A relative newcomer to biomedical science, Imperial College has become very productive in generating IP at the interface between medicine and engineering, he says.

Sime has also been very active in the UK's BioIndustry Association (BIA), where he was CEO for five years prior to taking on the Imperial College role, overseeing the growth of the organisation from 70 companies to more than 300, and a change in role from technology exchange into a business development organisation. He sees Australia's AusBiotech as going through much the same transition.

"You have to identify key things that will make a difference to biotechnology in Australia, that is, what hurdles are in the way of developing a viable business, and how to harness resources to change them," Sime says.

Sime is in Australia for the AusBiotech 2003 conference (August 17-19), where he is wearing his BIA hat and leading a delegation of British biotechnology companies and organisations eager to establish and develop links with Australian biotechnology companies.

"A lot of people want to get an overview of what is going on here," he says.