Queensland BioCapital Fund announces first investment

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has opened his campaign to grab a slice of the spotlight for the State during Bio2003 by announcing the first investment by Australia’s largest biotechnology fund, the $100 million Queensland BioCapital Fund.

Beattie also unveiled the creation of a blue ribbon advisory council composed of 11 of the State’s most successful biotech business leaders and scientists.

The two announcements are the first in a string of initiatives which Beattie is scheduled to outline during Bio2003. Both were made from New York where a Queensland delegation led by Beattie is pursuing trade and investment opportunities in the lead-up to the conference.

The Queensland BioCapital Fund will inject $6 million into Xenome Ltd, a University of Quensland spin off which is developing novel anti-pain drugs based on molecules found in tropical marine animals.

Xenome has forged collaborative arrangements with a number of European drug discovery companies. The QBF’s $6 million is expected to allow it to accelerate its schedule for launching the first clinical trials of its lead drug candidate XEN 2471, a pain-killing molecule derived from the venom of a marine shellfish.

Current shareholders in the three-year-old company include investment fund managers Medica Holdings and BioTech Capital Limited, and UniQuest Pty Ltd, the commercialisation arm of the University of QueenslandXenome is the first in what are expected to be 20 investments made by the closed-end QBF venture fund.

The new Queensland Biotechnology Advisory Council announced by Beattie will be chaired by Prof Peter Andrews, the retired co-director of Queensland’s premier biotech research centre, the Institute for Molecular Biology.

The council is being formed to provide the Beattie Government with advice on how best the realise the commercial potential of biotech initiatives which have drawn about $200 million in public funding over the past few years.

Other members of the Biotechnology Advisory Council include Professor Mark Von Itzstein, developer of the anti-influenza drug Relenza, and Euan Murdoch, the founder of Herron Pharmaceuticals. They will be expected to create innovative technqiues to attract more investment and research colloaborations into Queensland’s biotech sector, Beattie said.

According to Andrews, Queensland’s taks is to match is research base and natural resources with experienced biobusiness managers and increased capital investment.

"If we do that, we'll have a biotech industry worth $3 billion a year by 2010," he claimed.

Others on the council include Prof James Dale, Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Farmacule, Prof Michael Good, President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutions, Dr Kathryn Radford, Chief Executive Officer, Queensland BioCapital Fund, Russell Reichelt, Chief Executive Officer, CRC for Reef Research, Dr Peter Riddles, President, AusBiotech, and Dr Tracie Ramsdale, CEO Alchemia.