Australasian Biotechnology (backfiles) AusBiotech ISSN: 1036-7128 Vol. 11, Num. 5, 2001, pp. 3-5

Australasian Biotechnology, Vol. 11 No. 5, 2001, pp. 3-5

From the Executive Director

By Tony Coulepis, Executive Director

Code Number: au01062

The last few months have been a time of ‘consolidation’ as AusBiotech progressed with a number of key projects, as well as interacting with and supporting the ever-growing AusBiotech Membership, which we are delighted to see.

A brief overview of AusBiotech’s activities since my last report to Members in the July/August edition of the Journal is as follows:

AusBiotech’s Tax Paper

After several months of consultation with Members and Biotechnology Stakeholders, the AusBiotech Directors are pleased to present the Tax Paper in this edition of the Journal. I am also delighted that of the seven recommendations in this document, which has already been shared with Contributors and Government Representatives, it appears that one recommendation has already been targeted for action by the present Government. There also appears to be strong support for action on the remaining six recommendations.

AusBiotech would like to sincerely acknowledge the contribution made to this Taxation Paper by in excess of 100 AusBiotech Members and Biotechnology Stakeholders throughout Australia. In particular, we would like to express a note of special thanks to the following companies/people for the time they devoted in reviewing the several drafts of this document leading to the final version which is published in this edition of the Journal:

• Ernst & Young (Keith Hardy, Chris Ball, Eddie Pegoraro, and their colleagues at E & Y);
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers (Tony Stephen and his colleagues at PWC); and
• Mark Santini from MLS Medical.

AusBiotech will continue to pursue Taxation Reforms that will stimulate the growth of the Australian Biotechnology Industry and we welcome the support of Members in this endeavour.

New AusBiotech Website

In this edition of the Journal there is also a report on the new AusBiotech website which was launched a few weeks ago and is constantly being upgraded based on comments and requests received from Members. We are delighted with the level of response from Members and look forward to your continued comments concerning how we can deliver the best possible service through our website. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Eugene Lachowicz for his assistance in revising and updating the website and for his prompt response in addressing suggestions from Members.

For those Members who have not seen the website, please take a moment to visit the new site and then make it your first port of call for biotechnology information. The website can be found at www.ausbiotech.org.

AusBiotech’s National Conference

In recent weeks Members would have received the ‘First Announcement’ of AusBiotech’s National Biotechnology Conference and Exhibition which will be held in Melbourne between 18th and 21st August 2002. The major theme of this Meeting will be Building Excellence Through Partnerships. This Conference will be the ‘premier’ Australian biotechnology event in 2002. Please add this date to your diaries and plan to join friends, colleagues, biotechnology stakeholders, international guests and international biotechnology delegations at this Meeting. We also look forward to the support from our Corporate Members and welcome the opportunity to discuss this event with you. The AusBiotech 2002 Organising Committee will be releasing information about this Conference on a regular basis from this point as the preliminary Program and Sponsorship details are almost ready for circulation. An AusBiotech 2002 Conference website, linked to AusBiotech’s website, will shortly be available and Members will be able to follow the developments of this major activity as they unfold.

Biotechnology Directory/Database

This project has been progressing steadily and we hope to have the first modules of this service operational by the end of this year and then to progressively build this service for the benefit of Members and Biotechnology Stakeholders. This is indeed an exciting project that should have a significant impact on the availability of biotechnology information in Australia. We have selected an IT partner and have commenced discussions with data providers and welcome dialogue with interested parties and potential partners and sponsors.

Celera Genetics Database

Information was sent to both AusBiotech Members as well as non-Member Biotechnology Companies as the Consortium that is being investigated jointly by AusBiotech and Biotechnology Australia is a National initiative. Negotiations are progressing with Celera to explore the feasibility for an Australian Consortium to access the Celera Genetics Database for commercial purposes. If any Company has not received this information, and consequently wishes to know more about this project, please feel free to contact the AusBiotech Office and we shall send you the relevant documents.

AusBiotech Membership Base

After the record breaking number of new AusBiotech Members published in the July/August edition of the Journal (ie. almost one whole page of new Members), we are delighted that this trend is continuing with another record and full page of new Members as published in this Journal. Our statistics show that since 1/1/01, AusBiotech has grown with approximately 100% more new Members compared to the same period (ie January to October) last year. AusBiotech’s Membership is now well over the 800 mark and we hope to reach 1,000 Members by the end of this year. Any assistance to reach this target, through Members alerting their colleagues about AusBiotech, would be welcomed, as the strength of our organisation is through our participating Members.

As AusBiotech continues to build the infrastructure from which we can service our Members and the Biotechnology Community, we welcome comments from new and existing Members concerning how we can improve existing services or add new services to benefit Members.

Branch Structures

AusBiotech has continued with its program to strengthen its Branch Structures with Branches recruiting new Members to their respective Committees in order to deliver local benefits, as well as to implement AusBiotech’s National Strategy in their respective communities. I urge all Members to visit the AusBiotech website on www.ausbiotech.org in order to monitor activities and functions that have been organised by the AusBiotech network of State and Regional Committees.

We also welcome the new NSW Branch Committee, which was announced to Members through E-mail communication a few weeks ago, and look forward to this Committee’s ‘Inaugural Function’, which is the AusBiotech AGM on 27th November 2001, as discussed later in this Report. Our thanks to the outgoing Committee and its Chairperson, Professor Peter Gray, who have provided valuable and energetic service and a foundation from which to build.

Finally, the Queensland Branch has advised that everything is proceeding according to schedule with its ‘ClubBio’ activity on 9th November at the Gold Coast, which promises to be an interesting, informative, and enjoyable event. Further details of this function can be found on the AusBiotech website and I look forward to catching up with Members at this event.

AusBiotech Annual General Meeting

As Peter Riddles outlined in his President’s report, we are now moving towards the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) under AusBiotech’s new name and Constitution.

The AGM will be held on 27th November 2001 in NSW at the Trade & Investment Centre, Level 44, Grosvenor Place, 225 George Street, Sydney.

The official Notice and associated paperwork for this Meeting was sent to all Members by mail on Tuesday, 23rd October, and the information is also posted on the AusBiotech website. If any Member has not received this paperwork, or has any questions relating to the documents provided, and the items of business specified, please contact the AusBiotech Office.

The AGM will be followed by a Networking event and a Guest Speaker making this activity a good opportunity for friends, colleagues and biotechnology stakeholders to get together. An agenda and timetable for this event is available on the AusBiotech website. We are grateful for the assistance of the NSW DSRD for the facilities and Blake Dawson Waldron for the AGM associated paperwork and legal consultation. This promises to be a great night so please place a note in your diaries for 27/11/01.

Partnerships

A major activity over the past 10 months has been establishing ‘partnerships’ in order to achieve the goals of our organisation with effective use of our resources. This is already evident through many of the items I have mentioned to Members in this Report. For example, the partnership with AHI for the CHIF/ABA Meeting, the consultation processes undertaken to-date as well as the major theme of AusBiotech’s National Conference in 2002 mentioned above (ie Building Excellence Through Partnership), etc. We welcome suggestions and ideas from Members concerning partnerships that will collectively foster the development of the Australian Biotechnology Industry and I look forward to working with organisations and individuals on projects beneficial to the Industry and its stakeholders.

AusBiotech’s ‘Scorecard’ for 2001

AusBiotech has been active in a number of areas in 2001 and, as the organisation moves into the 2nd quarter of its 3-year Business Plan and the final quarter of 2001, I thought that it might be useful to reflect on AusBiotech’s activities since 1/1/01.

It has certainly been a busy 10 months, which seems more like a couple of years. A brief review of AusBiotech’s activities is as follows:

• Development of AusBiotech’s 3-year Business Plan entitled Growing Australian Biotechnology;
• A significant increase in new Members since 1/1/01 equating to an approximate 100% increase compared to the same period last year;
• Securing a pledge of $450,000 over 3 years from the Federal Government to assist the organisation develop a sustainable infrastructure from which to serve its Members and the Australian Biotechnology Industry. The contractual arrangements have nearly been finalised with Biotechnology Australia, and the consequent release of funds will occur over the next several weeks;
• Entering into a partnership arrangement with the South Australian Government to foster and support National initiatives and to assist the SA Local Industry, as required, with a pledge from the SA Government of $250,000 over 3 years;
• Securing an $80,000 Grant from the Victorian Government in the first 6 months of 2001 which was instrumental in assisting the preparation of the AusBiotech Business Plan and strengthening the Victorian Branch of AusBiotech;
• Organising and leading an Australian Delegation to the BIO Asia Pacific Meeting which was held in April 2001 in Hawaii;
• Strengthening of AusBiotech’s State and Regional Branches and facilitation of National, as well as Local, activities through the Branch Network of AusBiotech Committees;
• Initiating the Directory/Database project which will result in a National, world-class Information Service for AusBiotech Members and the Australian Biotechnology Industry;
• Initiation of plans for an Annual major Australian Biotechnology Conference focussed on the commercial and business end of biotechnology with the next Meeting, namely, the AusBiotech 2002 National Biotechnology Conference & Exhibition scheduled for Melbourne between 18th and 21st August 2002;
• Working with Members to adopt a new name and Constitution for the organisation leading to the ‘genesis’ of AusBiotech Ltd on the 10/5/01;
• Chairing the National Steering Committee in preparation for the BIO2001 Meeting in San Diego, participating at BI02001 and then, with the support of the Committee Members, continuing to Chair the National Steering Committee Meeting in preparation for BIO2002 in Toronto and other National events;
• Relocation of the organisation’s offices and initiating activities to upgrade facilities, infrastructure, systems and procedure to better serve Members and biotechnology stakeholders;
• Collaborating with BIO USA to lead the way for the establishment of an International Biotechnology Federation (IBF), to discuss and tackle global biotechnology issues, with the first meeting of International Biotechnology Associations/ Organisations scheduled for early 2002;
• Raising the International Profile of AusBiotech and attracting International Corporate Members; Facilitating a series of consultation discussions associated with National initiatives including:
  - BIF;
  - Centres of Excellence; and
  - BioProspecting.
• Upgrading the AusBiotech communication tools, namely, AusBiotech’s Website, Journal and E-mail List Server facility with systems and procedures in place to continue to monitor and upgrade these Services;
• Joining in Partnership with Australian Health International (AHI) to organise the successful CHIF/ABA Conference in Sydney in August 2001;
• Joining in Partnership with Biotechnology Australia to explore the feasibility of an Australian Consortium to cost effectively access the Celera Genome Database for commercial purposes;
• Facilitating a series of consultation discussions concerning Taxation Barriers to the growth of the Biotechnology Industry resulting in the Taxation Paper published in this edition of the Journal;
• Supporting the AusBiotech Queensland Branch initiative for the ClubBio activity on 9/11/01 at the Gold Coast and working with other State Branches on other initiatives which will be announced shortly;
• Responding, where possible, to the increasing number of requests for AusBiotech’s President and Executive Director to participate in, or to comment on, activities/issues/events of relevance to Australian Biotechnology;

The above activities over the past 10 months have generated a foundation and momentum from which AusBiotech can continue to develop as its infrastructure is established allowing the organisation to improve services to Members and to the Australian Biotechnology Industry.

In conclusion, it has been a busy and productive time since 1/1/01, but the best is yet to come. The incoming Board of Directors, after the AGM on 27/11/01, will continue to implement the 3-year Business Plan that has been available to Members since April 2001, and commenced implementation in July 2001. The challenge for Directors, Members and Biotechnology Stakeholders is, while maintaining a focus on implementation of activities, to also be mindful of any changes to AusBiotech’s 3-year Business Plan which are necessary due to the changing circumstances of our industry. To this end we continue to seek and welcome input from Members.

I look forward to meeting up with Members throughout Australia at the various AusBiotech activities. In particular, at the ClubBio event on 9/11/01 in Queensland, at the AGM and Networking function in Sydney on 27/11/01 and then for our major gathering in Melbourne from 18th-21st August 2002.

Dr Tony Coulepis

Copyright 2001 - AusBiotech