A tour of Life Sciences, Down Under |
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Si tu vides biotech societates felix, Sub Descendere - Motto for the Life Sciences sector Down Under, borrowed and adapted from the US state of Michigan.
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Come and see nine great Life Sciences clusters, and a complete ecosystem
If you seek successful biotech companies, come Down Under. If you know the Life Sciences sector in, say, the Canada, or Scandinavia or Germany, but have never been to Australia and New Zealand, then you need to do yourself a favour, come Down Under and take a look around. You will find some outstanding Life Sciences investment opportunities. At NDF Research we argue that our region represents probably the third most powerful Life Sciences geography on the planet, with Australia one of only 17 countries in the world that qualify as a genuine 'Power' in our industry globally (click here). We're happy to facilitate some introductions, and we look forward to saying 'G'Day Mate' to you when you get here. Here's a brief Life Sciences travel guide to our region and the nine places that you definitely need to visit to get an understanding of the valuable and, we argue, undervalued, biotech and medical device companies that are bubbling up in our part of the world.
Getting here. The trouble with Australia and New Zealand is that we're a long way from where most people in Life Sciences live. Los Angeles to Sydney non-stop will take you around 15 hours flying across the Pacific Ocean, although all the major US airlines - Delta, United and American - will make the trip daily. London is even further away. Flying from that city to Sydney will take you 23 or 24 hours via either a Middle Eastern hub such as Dubai or an Asian hub such as Hong Kong or Bangkok. Amazingly, we still have close ties to a Mother Country where, if you want to see our Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England, you have to dust an entire day getting to where she lives. Asia is where we really belong, in spite of our European heritage, but it still takes eight or nine hours to get to Singapore and nine or ten hours to get to Hong Kong from Sydney, We have a saying in Australia that we live under the Tyranny of Distance. That apparent disadvantage is, however, an opportunity. It means that if you Americans, Europeans or Asians get down here first you'll spot outstanding Life Sciences bargains before the rest of of your less adventurous competitors have made the trip.
The nine places you need to visit Down Under. In your Life Sciences trip Down Under we recommend that you visit nine places in Australia and New Zealand - Melbourne, Geelong, Wellington, Auckland, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane. We believe that if you go to these nine cities, and meet with local bio-entrepreneurs, scientists, analysts and investors, you will go home with plenty of great biotech and medical device ideas in which to invest.
Getting here. The trouble with Australia and New Zealand is that we're a long way from where most people in Life Sciences live. Los Angeles to Sydney non-stop will take you around 15 hours flying across the Pacific Ocean, although all the major US airlines - Delta, United and American - will make the trip daily. London is even further away. Flying from that city to Sydney will take you 23 or 24 hours via either a Middle Eastern hub such as Dubai or an Asian hub such as Hong Kong or Bangkok. Amazingly, we still have close ties to a Mother Country where, if you want to see our Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England, you have to dust an entire day getting to where she lives. Asia is where we really belong, in spite of our European heritage, but it still takes eight or nine hours to get to Singapore and nine or ten hours to get to Hong Kong from Sydney, We have a saying in Australia that we live under the Tyranny of Distance. That apparent disadvantage is, however, an opportunity. It means that if you Americans, Europeans or Asians get down here first you'll spot outstanding Life Sciences bargains before the rest of of your less adventurous competitors have made the trip.
The nine places you need to visit Down Under. In your Life Sciences trip Down Under we recommend that you visit nine places in Australia and New Zealand - Melbourne, Geelong, Wellington, Auckland, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane. We believe that if you go to these nine cities, and meet with local bio-entrepreneurs, scientists, analysts and investors, you will go home with plenty of great biotech and medical device ideas in which to invest.
Destination No. 1 - Melbourne, Vic.
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Coordinates: 37.8136° S, 144.9631° E
Population: 3.8 million Global Livable City ranking: No. 16 Major Universities: University of Melbourne; Monash University Major companies: CSL Ltd; Mayne Pharma; Mesoblast; Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals; Medical Developments; Starpharma |
Summary: The Victorian gold rushes of the 19th Century made Melbourne into a leading city of the British Empire for a while, but the long-run effect of the wealth creation of that period was to channel a great deal of money into medical research, through labs such as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
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Destination No. 2 - Geelong, Vic.
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Coordinates: 38.1499° S, 144.3617° E
Population: 0.2 million Major Universities: Deakin University |
Summary: Geelong, around 75 km southwest of Melbourne along the west side of Port Phillip Bay, is an example of an Australian regional city that can potentially build a strong Life Science sector. In Deakin it has a University with a history of developing valuable Intellectual Property in the Life Sciences. Being a smaller city with proximity to a larger one, it can attract talent looking for a better lifestyle. and with a manufacturing base that is dying, it is keen to develop 21st Century industries.
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Destination No. 3 - Wellington, NZ
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Coordinates: 41.2865° S, 174.7762° E
Population: 0.2 million Livable city ranking: No. 15 Major universities: Victoria University of Wellington Major companies: Volpara Health Technologies |
Summary: The New Zealand capital, a three and a half hours flight east of Melbourne, has developed a reputation in recent years as a tech hub. Xero (ASX: XRO), the accounting software company, was built here, and various tech startups as 8i, a volumetric virtual reality company are clustering around Xero and TradeMe, New Zealand's largest online auction site. Victoria University of Wellington has a reputation for biotechnology innovation. Volpara (ASX: VHT) develops software for analysis of breast density.
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Destination No. 4 - Auckland, NZ
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Coordinates: 36.8485° S, 174.7633° E
Population: 1.4 million Livable city ranking: No. 3 Major universities: University of Auckland Major companies: Adherium; AFT Pharmaceuticals; Fisher & Paykel Healthcare; Innate Immunotherapeutics; Living Cell Technologies |
Summary: New Zealand's biggest city has a strong technology scene and the city is home to various Life Sciences up-and-comers such as Living Cell Technologies and AFT Pharmaceuticals. The University of Auckland, as a Top 100 University, is at the cutting edge in terms of developing new Life Science Intellectual Property.
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Destination No. 5 - Sydney, NSW
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Coordinates: 33.8688° S, 151.2093° E
Population: 4.6 million Livable city ranking: No. 11 Major universities: University of Sydney; University of New South Wales Major companies: Cochlear; Sirtex Medical; Nanosonics; Viralytics; SomnoMed; Lifehealthcare; Pharmaxis; Medlab Clinical |
Summary: Sydney is a bigger Australian city than Melbourne but it tends to be more expensive to live in, which is why it ranks slightly behind its southern rival. Both cities have two major bio-oriented universities and a series of established companies. Melbourne has CSL, Sydney has Cochlear. Melbourne may have the Hall Institute but Sydney has the Garvan.
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Destination No. 6 - Perth, WA
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Coordinates: 31.9505° S, 115.8605° E
Population: 1.9 million Livable city ranking: No. 22 Major universities: University of Western Australia; Murdoch University Major companies: ResApp Health; OBJ Ltd; Phylogica; Nuheara; Orthocell; SUDA; Botanix Pharmaceuticals |
Summary: Perth is a significant Life Sciences cluster because of the high level of risk appetite on the part of its investors, a legacy of the city's historic role in mining and oil deals. Having a Top 100 University and a major labs like the Telethon Institute in town helped connect this capital base to biotech and medical devices.
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Destination No. 7 - Adelaide, SA
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Coordinates: 34.9285° S, 138.6007° E
Population: 1.2 million Livable city ranking: No. 28 Major universities: The University of Adelaide; University of South Australia Major companies: Alcidion; Bionomics; Ellex Medical Lasers; LBT Innovations; Reproductive Health Sciences |
Summary: The state of South Australia has a history of building new industries from scratch, as evidenced by the state's move into manufacturing in the 1960s. These days the public policy push is towards biotech, and this has resulted in a steady stream of startups from out of the universities, located mainly in the inner suburb of Thebarton. Adelaide has lower costs than most of the rest of urban Australia, and has a high quality of life which can attract the talent.
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Destination No. 8 - Canberra, ACT
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Coordinates: 35.2809° S, 149.1300° E
Population: 0.4 million Livable city ranking: No. 29 Major universities: Australian National University |
Summary: Australia's Federal capital is a great Life Sciences hotbed because the Australian National University is a Top 20 University globally. As with other regional cities in Australia, people are attracted to Canberra by the quality of life in the city.
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Destination No. 9 - Brisbane, Qld
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Coordinates: 27.4698° S, 153.0251° E
Population: 2.4 million Livable city ranking: No. 37 Major universities: University of Queensland; Queensland University of Technology; Griffith University Major companies: Impedimed; Admedus; Anatara Lifesciences; Factor Therapeutics, Analytica; Oventus |
Summary: Brisbane benefits from the inventiveness of the University of Queensland and other universities as well as labs such as the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and a state government that has made encouragement of biotech a policy priority. The sale of Panbio to Inverness in 2007 and Peplin Biotech to LEO Pharma in 2009 helped put this cluster on the map.
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