Qld's junior biotechs get a buffer against commercial realities

Queensland is moving to ease the nasty shock felt by fledgling biotechs hatched in the tertiary sector's "sheltered workshop" environment when they encounter the cost of commercial office and lab space.

The State government is creating a $3.7 million BioAccelerator facility at a technology part on the periphery of Brisbane which will take up to 10 companies in its first stage.

The facility is being set up in the IT-oriented Brisbane Technology Park at Eight-Mile Plains on Brisbane's southern edge.

The facility is a step up from the incubator level and will provide middle-stage biotech companies with the infrastructure they need, such as wet labs and office space.

It is meant to fill an acknowledged gap in the provision of good quality but reasonably priced accommodation for biotech companies that have advanced beyond the early stages.

Up to 10 companies will be accommodated during stage one of the three-stage project.

Mr Beattie said many early-stage biotech companies were created at universities where they had ready access to facilities such as labs and libraries.

The initiative is being saluted by young and not-so-young Queensland biotech start-ups and spin-offs.

Public, unlisted company Xenome, which specialises in a class of molecules related to marine venoms, well remembers the shock of moving into commercial quarters.

Half of its operating budget was eaten up by the costs of obtaining lab space, fitting it out and equipping it, said Dr Roger Drinkwater, co-founder and chief researcher of the two-and-a-half-year-old company.

"In a sense it is dead money [because it does not directly advance the research and product development which is the company's raison d'etre]," he said. The Queensland initiative was "an overdue and vital step that the industry has been asking for," he said.

BioAccelerator will be developed by the private company Graystone in conjunction with the Queensland government, said Minister for Innovation and Information Economy Paul Lucas.

Universities already provide incubation services to new biotechnology companies, giving them lab space, mentoring and assisting them, Lucas said.

"As these companies are spun out of the universities' incubation programs, the BioAccelerator will provide the facilities and services to assist in the next steps of their development."

The program, due to begin later this year, will be aided by the recently-announced Australian Institute of Commercialisation, which will also be located at the Brisbane Technology Park, Lucas said.

Companies that grow too big for the BioAccelerator program could take up residence in larger facilities in the technology park and form a biotech cluster, he suggested.