AusBiotech report: Novotech gets $8m boost

Australian contract research organisation Novotech has received an $8 million injection of capital to back expansion plans in the US and Asia.

The investment, from biotech venture firms BioPacificVentures and Co-Investor Capital Partners, will assist Novotech in its plans to open an office in India by the end of this year and others in the region to follow.

Novotech already has an office in southern California and in New Jersey, a subsidiary in the UK and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand.

BioPacificVentures is a New Zealand-based venture capital group, formed from a collaboration between NZ venture capitalist Direct Capital and AgResearch, NZ's leading agricultural research organisation. Co-Investor Capital Partners specialises in smaller listed companies in Australia and New Zealand.

Novotech's CEO, Alek Safarian, said many of the company's US clients required a presence in Asia and Novotech was well regarded in the US and the EU for managing the Australasia/Asia Pacific component of global trials.

Safarian announced the deal at the AusBiotech conference in Brisbane yesterday.

Novotech has a special focus on oncology, ophthalmology and cardiology trials. It conducts approximately 60 clinical trials every year: nearly 80 per cent are in Phase II & III, with remaining in Phase 1.

The future for CROs in Australia looks bright, with growth in the sector estimated at 15 per cent per annum.

Frost & Sullivan program manager Shruti Dwivedi said Novotech demonstrated "exemplary growth and performance" and was well placed to benefit from the increase in trials conducted in Australia, much of which is coming from large pharmaceutical firms.