New Zealand delivers new therapeutic and nutritional products

The pharmaceutical industry is being driven by growing demand for new therapies, as the population ages and as consumers seek more personalised treatments. Growing awareness of the link between lifestyle and longevity is also driving a convergence between medicine and nutrition - creating new market opportunities for pharmaceutical companies.

New Zealand’s biotechnology industry is perfectly placed to help multinationals deliver new nutritional and therapeutic products. By partnering with New Zealand’s companies, universities and research institutions international investors can position themselves to take advantage of world-changing ideas, creative intellect and high value specialisation.

New Zealand’s biotechnology sector focuses on key industries where our country already excels, such as forestry and agriculture. That’s enabled us to develop world-class strengths in niche fields of human health research, agriculture, forestry and animal research, and in forensic and environmental sciences.

Our biotechnology industry boasts a rich pool of creative and commercially-minded scientists. It offers world-class research and development facilities, and works within a stable, cost competitive business environment that is actively supported by the New Zealand Government.

New Zealand delivers commercial success

New Zealand’s biotechnology sector already delivers results to multinationals, venture capitalists and international research institutions.

Swiss company Roche and US-based Genentech have invested in the world-leading intellectual property built up by New Zealand scientists. Roche and Genentech are part of a syndicate of investors in a New Zealand cancer therapy company, with links to Stanford and Auckland universities, that specialises in tumour hypoxia products.

California-based Invitrogen manufactures animal-derived products in New Zealand, recognising the value of our excellent animal health environment. New Zealand has Category One status in Europe and is free of animal disease such as BSE and scrapie. Living Cell Technologies leverages off our ability to add value to natural resources by applying biological knowledge.

Living Cell’s New Zealand research facility develops cell lines from pigs for the treatment of diabetes, Huntington’s disease and haemophilia.

GlaxoSmithKline benefits from the cost advantages of doing clinical trials in New Zealand. Glaxo helped establish the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, and the institute is now involved in global trials of new Glaxo medicines. Multinationals such as Merck Sharp & Dohme, Ego Pharmaceuticals and Nutricia also make use of New Zealand’s state of the art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) research and formulation facilities.

Swiss venture capital company Inventages is leveraging off New Zealand’s growing local venture capital market. Inventages has become a cornerstone investor in a dedicated New Zealand biotechnology fund that is supported by the New Zealand Government.

Britain’s NuPharm values the cost competitiveness of our biotechnology industry, where research and development costs are generally half those of Europe and the United States.

New Zealand has a supportive business environment – for example, research and development is 100% tax deductible – and has an IP regime that protects investment. New Zealand also has expertise in developing new technologies that can be used to advance biotechnology. For example, the Bioengineering Research Institute develops mathematical models for all aspects of human physiology, from genes to whole organs. It also develops the experimental techniques and instrumentation required to measure cell and tissue properties, and to perform model validation experiments.

Share the success

To find out how you can access New Zealand’s ingenuity in biotechnology, contact Investment New Zealand, the investment promotion agency of the New Zealand Government. Investment New Zealand understands the biotechnology industry and has extensive networks within it, allowing us to identify and facilitate investment opportunities relevant to you.

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