Eden Biotechnology -

Top technology companies form a powerful biotech network in the Southern Cape. Dr Torsten Henschel looks at the players and problems

Eden Biotechnology is an initiative born out of the desire of local industry stakeholders, involved in health biotechnology in the Eden municipal area, to create a global centre of health biotechnology excellence. The focus of Eden Biotechnology is best described as Biotechnology for Health.
The Garden Route (Eden) region appears to be particularly attractive to the knowledge and research-intensive health biotechnology industry. The major attractors include availability of a high level of skilled people, who enjoy living in the pleasant and modern Eden environment, the existing critical mass of health biotechnology companies and easy access via its superb infrastructure, including George airport. The fact that the Knysna-George-Mossel Bay corridor has one of the highest concentrations of sophisticated and modern as well as alternative medical service providers and specialists is certain to be another draw card for health biotechnology businesses. Eden Biotechnology actively engages with and facilitates the development of local biotechnology business interests by companies seeking to invest or do business from outside the region.
Biotechnology comprises a set of rapidly developing scientific and engineering technologies, which are applied in Eden to the development of new, effective, safe and more affordable health solutions. Much of the research and development in Eden is focused on a combination of treating major African health challenges such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS cost-effectively, as well as addressing global health challenges such as safe and effective cancer treatment and the development of effective antibiotics.
Eden Biotechnology consists of five local pharmaceutical or phyto-medical development companies, all of which export internationally, as its core stakeholders. These include leading health biotechnology R&D companies such as Shimoda Biotechnology and Meyer Zall. In addition, three biotechnology-focused service providers, including South Africa's leading fully integrated clinical trials service provider, Q-Dot Pharma, and a phytomedically-focused NGO supplement the hub.
Eden Biotechnology was established in February this year and is still growing in terms of local representation. It currently counts 21 stakeholders with a direct interest in biotechnology as members.
Apart from the leadership role of the George Campus of PE Technikon in this initiative, Eden Biotechnology enjoys strong relationships with all the major South African biotechnology-focused public research institutions, as well as several outside the country. It fosters particularly strong relationships with the leading health biotechnology-oriented research universities in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. The initiative actively engages the different relevant national biotechnology support programmes, such as Cape Biotech and ECOBio, and is fully supported by the local and regional government structures, which include this initiative as a distinct focus in their Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
Eden Biotechnology focuses on two synergistic streams of activity. On the one hand the initiative serves to unite the community through various forums. At these events business people and other stakeholders get an opportunity to meet, interact and discuss individual and common or pre-competitive issues with the explicit intent of finding solutions. For example, in the first such forum a gap in the pharmaceutical value chain locally and in South Africa was identified.
The second activity results from identifying such particular needs. Eden Biotechnology facilitates the satisfaction of such a need, whether this is through creating a new business or attracting investments or attracting an existing business to the area. This will make the local health biotechnology industry more competitive globally as well as create local skills development and transfer, employment and wealth. In this particular example, at least eight local biotechnology businesses, as well as numerous national businesses, will benefit from access to the new service provider.
Another example is that of facilitating current negotiations for the establishment of the South African Biotechnology Institute in George. Should these negotiations prove successful, the institute will be established as a public-private partnership.
The challenge for Eden Biotechnology is to develop and shape the networking process further, so that the critical mass in the region grows, spawning new start-up business opportunities and attracting greater human and financial investment, thereby improving the local socio-economic situation in a sustainable manner.