Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

Short term actions:
MoRST and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to undertake a survey of New Zealand’s industrial
biotechnology research, to determine existing industrial biotechnology capability in New Zealand and
identify emerging needs.
NZBio to develop a Special Interest Group for industrial biotechnology.
Research funding and investment agencies to implement the Directions for bioenergy research signalled in
the Energy Research Roadmap.
Direction 4
The government will continue to support New Zealand’s best biomedical and drug development research
New Zealand has developed a number of world-class
biomedical research groups. These have been built
on sustained public investment and the research
excellence of the teams involved. The fruits of some of
these areas of research have started, or are in train to
reap commercial benefits.
The field of biotechnology offers the promise of huge
improvements in healthcare through, for example,
more selective drug targeting, genetic testing and
regenerative therapies. For these benefits to be realised,
discoveries made through biomedical research need
to be commercialised to make them into treatments
that can be used for patients. Given the size of the
New Zealand market and the expense of developing
biotechnology products, this will generally mean
targeting problems with an international as well as
New Zealand impact. This means that New Zealand
research has to be internationally competitive.
Investment in research excellence will also result
in health benefits for New Zealanders by providing
the expert skills and knowledge needed to adapt
international health biotechnology products to New
Zealand conditions. With such a small part of the
world’s biotechnology research happening in New
Zealand it is likely that the major health benefits from
biotechnology to New Zealanders will come from
offshore research.
Strengthening trends in the global biopharmaceutical
industry to outsource early stage R&D present
opportunities for New Zealand. However, the challenge
remains one of guiding excellent research opportunities
through to the point of research commercialisation.
Connecting effectively with regional or global markets
and partners is a critical part of this process.
Over the past few years a number of New Zealand
biomedical research groups have developed effective
connections with the global marketplace. Future
investment in later stage research investments should
be concentrated around research that builds on or
leverages off these links. This is especially so for
collaborations which vertically integrate basic discovery,
development and early commercialisation by groups
with proven track records.
Government funded biotechnology R&D investments
are an important part of sustaining and building areas
of research strength. Its research investments need to be
based primarily on internationally competitive research
and researcher track record if critical mass is to be built
and for New Zealand to be internationally competitive.
Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research
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