Long road to new drugs in Asia, even with gene map

But investors shrugged off the breakthrough elsewhere in Asia, where biotechnology research is a good decade behind the Western world and unlikely to grow quickly because of the huge research and development (R&D) Costs required.

Despite the brave new world heralded by the mapping out of 97 per cent of the human genome, Asian industry officials have no illusions that the tailor-made drugs and predictive testing it promises are now close at hand.

“It unveils a huge potential for our company’s developmentin the long run, though we do not expect it to yield results overnight,” said an official at Shanghai Fortune Industries Joint Stock Co Limited.

An official at Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Corp Limited was more blunt: “Commercialisation of the results of human gene studies need years or even dozens of years,” he said.

Even in India, now a software powerhouse, thanks to its large pool of highly educated, English-speaking and low-cost workers, there was little excitement about the commercial implications of the scientists’ accomplishment.

“The few companies who have invested in biotechnology may have some research successes, but human genomes are not on the agenda of Indian companies,” said C Srihari, an analyst with Khandwala Securities in Mumbai.

“And they certainly can’t afford it. Unless they all get together and raise funds or get venture capital backing.”

But experts say information on the human genome, which is to be published for all in a scientific journal, will give Asian biomedical researchers a short-cut to knowledge that Western scientists had grappled to understand for years.

It will allow scientists to refine their search for drugs tailored to the needs of individual patients suffering from a range of diseases, putting Asian biotechnology companies — many of which are now small, unlisted outfits — on the map.

It will certainly be a boon for Singapore, which announced at the week-end that it wants biotechnology and life sciences R&D Investment of $600 million this year alone. On Monday, Franklin Templeton Investments launched a life sciences fund in Singapore.

In India, scientists and biotech firms were more upbeatthan stock market analysts.

“Some scientists in India are already working on the humangenome…the code should be useful to invent therapies for diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and old-age diseases,” said K V Raghavan, director of the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairwoman and managing director of Biotech group, Biocon India Private Limited in Hyderabad, described the genome breakthrough as an “epoch-making” development.

“We are extremely excited…I believe it offers limitless opportunities, especially for a country like India where the human bio-diversity and patient population is huge,” she said. “…I think India is in an ideal position to develop high value intellectual property based on the human genome information.”