kuala lumpur: To help Malaysia remain globally competitive, biotechnology and bio-based companies are being urged to strengthen collaboration through the Quintuple Helix Approach.
The Quintuple Helix brings together knowledge, innovation and the environment, and is seen as an approach aligned with sustainable development and social ecology.
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Chan Lee Kang said such collaborations would strengthen local technological capabilities and position Malaysia among the top 30 countries on the Global Innovation Index by 2025.
Speaking at a document exchange and product launch event at the National Bioeconomy Showcase 2024 today, Chan reflected on the joint efforts made by various stakeholders and the innovative products on display, and expressed confidence that the biotechnology sector is on track to achieve the goals of the National Biotechnology Policy (DBN) 2.0.
Chan said DBN 2.0 aims to foster 30% BioNexus certified companies globally and 70% locally, with 16 Malaysian biotech companies listed on the Malaysian, Taiwan, Nasdaq, Hong Kong and Australian stock exchanges.
“With strong support from Mosti and collaboration with its agency Malaysia Bioeconomy Development Corporation (Bioeconomy Corporation), efforts will be strengthened to foster Quintaple Helix collaboration among players in the biotechnology industry, thereby enabling more biotechnology companies to achieve success both locally and internationally,” he said.
Quintuple Helix is formed through collaboration between five aspects – government, academia, industry, community and research – and emerges as Mosti’s strategic approach to expanding the biotech ecosystem.
“Each of the five aforementioned parties cannot act in isolation and Mosti and Bioeconomy have been looking at adopting a quintuple helix approach to ensure all parties stay aligned in scaling up the biotechnology system,” he added.
Chan presided over a document exchange and product launch ceremony between BioNexus and Biobased Accelerator (BBA) at the World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The event saw the exchange of five strategic cooperation documents and the launch of five biotech products by BioNexus and BBA status companies, some of which are already in the market and some to come, aiming for sales of about RM400 million over the next three years.
Bioeconomy Corporation chief executive officer Mohamed Khairul Fizal Abdul Razak said between January and May 2024, companies approved under the BBA programme, BioNexus status and high-impact companies generated a total revenue of RM1.5 billion.
“This demonstrates the strong capability of Malaysian biotech companies to drive national and global economic development. With Mosti’s support, Bioeconomy Corporation will actively help more biotech companies enter the wider market and contribute an additional RM2 billion to the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2024.”
Strategic partnerships include the production of the first bio-fertiliser with carbon accounting between IBG Manufacturing and Xiamen University Malaysia, the creation of a cosmetics and pharmaceutical hub between ATL Cosmetics and UM Pharmauji, recycling and carbon avoidance projects between Bioloop and 99 Speedmart, healthcare solutions between Bioeconomy Corp and MedKad, and the launch of a biotech commercialisation fund programme between Bioeconomy Corp and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd.
