Analysts urge industry latecomer Malaysia to concentrate efforts on niche areas

(The Straits Times, Asia)
21-May-2003

SCIENTIST WITH A SENSE OF DUTY

He is one of Britain's most respected biotech entrepreneurs, and the person Malaysia hopes will put the country on the world's biotechnology map.

Dr Kim Sze Tan, a Seremban-born scientist, has been pulled in by the government to help set the direction for the country's charge into this area.

The 47-year-old is managing a US$30-million (S$52 million) biotech venture capital fund jointly owned by four institutions including government investment arm Khazanah Nasional. The others are Great Eastern Life Assurance (M) Bhd, PacificMas Group and TH Group BHD.

"I am a Malaysian, so I have to discharge my national service responsibility to the country", he told The Straits Times yesterday.

But his sense of duty is not the only reason he is being courted by the government.

He was once ranked by London's Sunday Times as being among the UK's Top 10 entrepreneurs in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors. A Fellow of Britain's Royal Society of Medicine, he was ranked 100th richest person there in 2001 with some US$450 million stake in his listed companies.

Apart from managing the VC fund through his SpringHill Management, he has also invested RM20 million (S$9 million) in the Nilai Cancer Institute in Negeri Sembilan, that allows cancer-stricken patients to have a chance to try out new drugs and treatments.

SpringHill itself plans to set up two manufacturing plants in Malaysia, employing up to 200 in its first year of operation.

The plants will make insulin and mono-clonal antibodies for cancer-fighting drugs that are more effective and less painful than chemotherapy.

Copyright © 2003 The Straits Times, Asia.

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