“The setting up of the BioMalta Foundation is the second pillar of activity following the investment of €30Million in the construction and development of the BioMalta Campus – Malta’s premier Life Sciences Park.
BioMalta Foundation will be responsible to establish and manage the blueprint for the Life Sciences Industry in Malta, as well as oversee the successful development of the BioMalta Campus, as well as establish an Angel Investor Network to secure private funding for local companies who are or will be going research and development in biotechnology, medical, health and pharmaceutical industry.”
Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment Tonio Fenech made this announcement during a the formal launch of the BioMalta Foundation and appoint Professor Sir Christopher Evans as the first chairperson of the Foundation.
“We are privileged to have found in Sir Chris Evans, first and foremost a true supporter of Malta and we thank him for having accepted to take up this role to spearhead what can be termed as the genesis of a biotechnology industry. In Sir Chris Evans, we do not just find a medical health professional of high calibre, but a serial entrepreneur who has founded and spun off around 45 biotechnology companies during his career.”
“His experience in both business and industry is a key asset for Malta’s economic growth, both in terms of inward investment attraction and also in local enterprise development,” said Minister Fenech.
The BioMalta Foundation is being set up by Malta Enterprise and will be Chaired by Sir Chris Evans while also having representatives from Malta Enterprise, the Ministry of Finance, the Malta Council for Science and Technology and the University of Malta. The Governors for the Foundation will be announced in the coming weeks as other high profile local and international experts are expected to be appointed to the team.
Among other things, BioMalta Foundation shall be responsible for devising a strategic roadmap for the Life Sciences and Biotechnology industry in Malta, addressing amongst others the potential niches that Malta can attract and support, skills and resources gaps and how these can be addressed, inward investment programmes, as well as regulatory and ethical framework reviews.
Minister Fenech explained that the BioMalta Campus is expected to build on Malta’s long-standing tradition in the healthcare industry and the success the country registered in the pharmaceuticals industry – which has grown to employ over 1,000 workers and producing over €208m worth of exports in 2010, significantly up from the €56m exported in 2005. Malta’s next step is to transform these achievements in attracting pharmaceutical manufacturing into securing investment by innovation-led, R&D organisations and enterprises in the healthcare and bio-technology value chain.
“This is a natural evolution which brings about not just industrial value-added, as has been witnessed in other sectors of manufacturing, but also brings new technologies in healthcare to our shores.”
One of the Foundation’s key tasks is to attract foreign direct investment, existing SMEs and knowledge-based and new technology-based firms to the BioMalta Campus. It will also manage the business incubation facility with the Campus so as to catalyse new entrepreneurship in life sciences and associated technologies. This will be done together with the capabilities of Malta Enterprise, in particular its Trade and Investment Promotion Team.
In his concluding remarks, the Minister thanked Malta’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Joseph Zammit Tabona, for his efforts in introducing Government’s Vision to Sir Chris Evans, thereby initiating the process which has reached its first major milestone today.
Malta Enterprise Chairman Alan Camilleri, said that in order to achieve the Vision for Malta as a centre of excellence in the Life Sciences and Health industry, specific structures and expertise are required. “We have to keep in mind that we are not re-inventing the wheel. There exist several biotechnology parks in Europe, the US and the Middle East, all of which seek to attract research and cutting edge technology companies. We therefore, have to ensure, that the investment in the infrastructure of the BioMalta Campus, is accompanied by a similar investment in the development of skills and talent as well as the right investment promotion strategy. The Foundation will therefore be a key asset and driver to Malta Enterprise’s efforts in Investment and Trade Promotion.”
“Apart from having the infrastructure and the strategy, the research and development industry cannot thrive if there is not substantial funding, both private and public. Funding is crucial as research is about an iterative process of success and failure, which may ultimately lead to commercialisation of new technology, new health or medical products. The BioMalta Foundation therefore, has also been tasked with setting up the BioMalta Angel Investment Forum, which will work closely with University and with Malta Enterprise to attract local entrepreneurs and scientists. The Forum shall support, invest in and build specialist Malta-based companies delivering competitive technology solutions capable of rapid commercialisation in the medi-science market,” said Alan Camilleri.
Sir Chris Evans, thanked Minister Fenech and Malta Enterprise for having entrusted him with this role. He said that Malta has a great potential to develop itself and attract towards it high-calibre, world class research and medical technology companies as its is strategically located in the Mediterranean and has access to an already existing long standing tradition of excellent healthcare. “The investment in Mater Dei Hospital and the BioMalta Campus is a key asset, and I look forward to work with the University of Malta to keep developing Malta’s human capital in this industry.”
In addition to the above, Sir Chris Evans explained that one of the key tasks Sultan Scientific – one of his companies – will be working on is the establishment of a self-managed, Malta-based Private Investment Fund of approximately €200 million to invest in mid-late stage companies that have a strong pipeline of technologies and products which have been developed by management teams with both scientific and commercial credibility. This Fund shall be known as the Global Medi- Science Fund and shall be aimed at attracting foreign investors to Malta.
“Discussions with MFSA and the Banks are at a very advanced stage and Sultan Scientific shall be launching the Global Medi-Science Fund in the coming weeks. We are confident that we will manage to raise around €150Million by the end of the year and this is good news for Malta as in my capacity of Chairman of the BioMalta Foundation, I will use my best endeavours to use this fund to get new companies to set up their operations in Malta. In doing so, we will be creating the nexus between academia, industry and the research community each of which will increase the value- added to the local economy,” Sir Christoper concluded.
Sir Christopher is one of the UK’s and Europe’s highest profile and leading biotechnology entrepreneurs. He has created over 45 successful science companies from scratch in the UK and Europe. These presently employ over 3,500 people. He has successfully floated 20 new companies on stock markets around the world. At the age of 36, he was awarded an OBE for services to bio-sciences by John Major’s Government and at 42 he received his knighthood from Tony Blair’s Government.