AusBiotech, South Korea sign agreement

AusBiotech and its South Korean equivalent, the Bioindustry Association of Korea (BAK), have signed an agreement that they hope will lead to a stronger relationship between the two countries' biotech industries.

The memorandum of understanding, signed at the AusBiotech conference in Perth today, should lead to "increased cooperation between the two countries... and an increased interaction between scientists and technologists of Korea and Australia," said AusBiotech CEO Dr Anna Lavelle.

Under the agreement, AusBiotech and BAK will exchange non-confidential information about products, financial sources, joint venture and licensing opportunities.

"Eventually, I would like to see the establishment of a network for biotechnology which will spearhead a cooperative approach to biotech in the Asia region," Lavelle said.

In Perth for the AusBiotech conference, BAK president Prof Wan Kyoo Cho said he had been familiar with the Australian life science community since the early 1990s.

He told Australian Biotechnology News that Australian biotechnology companies could find that the new agreement would give them a new avenue into the Japanese and Chinese markets, in which Korea has operated for centuries.

Prof Cho, who has spearheaded the booming South Korean biotechnology industry for many years, said it was important for individual biotech industries to collaborate.

"We have to put our brains together," he said. "Biotechnology is not a game of money -- it is a game of brain."

Also representing South Korea at the signing of the agreement was Dr Hoon Han, CEO of cord blood stem cell firm Histostem. Cloning pioneer Prof Woo-Suk Hwang was to have attended the event, put pulled out of his visit to Australia.