The Philippines has the potential to clinch a niche position in a highly promising biotechnology sector with its vast natural resources and untapped pool of accomplished scientists if only start-up enterprises could be tied up with venture capitalists or well-oiled individuals.

Ma. Antonia O. G. Arroyo, chief executive officer and president of Hybridigm Consulting Inc. (HCI), Philippines' first biotechnology consultancy firm, said that while other countries like Japan, China, India, and Singapore had gone ahead in this sector, it is not too late for the country to emerge a leader.

Arroyo is a recipient of the British Chevening Scholarship and a member of the inaugural class of the Masters of Bioscience Enterprise, a joint project of the University of Cambridge, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Division, and MIT Sloan School of Management

She stresses that a medical biotechnology industry, a nutraceutical industry, and a whole diversity of science-based sectors await to be unveiled in the country.

"We have 500 known coral species worldwide, of this 488 are found in the Philippines. There is so much opportunity in natural products, in nutraceuticals and other therapeutic compounds," she said.

Having organized the "International Conference on Biotechnology Enterprise and Investment" held in Manila this week, Arroyo said enormous integration tasks between the business sector and the science community needs to be spearheaded in the country for which HCI is now a pioneer.

Several companies are now looking into biotechnology investments in the country, she said, including Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and US-based ICCP Ventures Inc. (IVPI) because of the tremendous potential in the sector.

Venture capitalists and high net worth individuals could simply be lured by the model set by the US whose biotechnology industry has a market capitalization of 2 billion as of November 2004 of which .4 billion was funded through private equity, she said. The US food biotechnology is a 0 billion sector; chemicals, 0 billion; and biomaterials, trillion. (MMA)

But in this emerging Philippine industry, "Scientists have to learn business and businessmen have to learn Science," she said.

Prof. Richard Cruz of the Asian Institute of Management said the start-up biotechnology firms locally can be funded by both venture capitalists and by wealthy individuals and family-owned corporations. But a whole range of infrastructure (legal, technical, scientific) have to be synergistically put up for venture capitalists and wealthy investors to come into the picture.

"Private equity investors, moneyed individuals can look at it. But they're the ones that need education on biotechnology. The industry itself doesn't have a supporting infrastructure. How much is being spent for R&D in the Philippines outside of just maintenance? How much of our GDP is being invested in R &D? I'm sure it's minuscule," he said in an interview during the conference.