Q+A: Why a Singapore investor is betting on Brisbane’s biotech future
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics, and more. I'm Sean Aylmer. Singapore-based Altia Investments, A-L-T-E-A, Altia Investments, has spent years building and investing in life sciences infrastructure across Asia.
What makes Brisbane an emerging biotech hub?
Now, it's making a major bet on Brisbane with the launch of the new life science incubator at QIMR Berghofer. Brisbane is fast becoming a healthcare and biotech hub for Australia in medical and pharmaceutical products. Growth in the city has occurred seven times faster than the rest of the country.
What is the vision behind the Life Science Incubator at QIMR?
Fear and Greed is working with the Brisbane Economic Development Agency to explore exactly why global companies are choosing to invest in Brisbane. John Ratcliffe is CEO of Altair Investments. He spends his time sometimes in Queensland, sometimes in Singapore. Coming to me from Singapore this morning, John, welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A. Thanks very much. John, tell me about the Life Science Incubator. What's the vision behind it?
The Life Science Incubator is a critical part of what Altea Investments does when it enters into a new life sciences precinct. If I step back a little to what Altea actually is as a business, Altea is a provider of infrastructure for life sciences innovation research. The R&D research infrastructure that's required to take an idea from something that occurs potentially in a university or sometimes even in someone's garage through into a real idea that turns into a viable product. It's that translational piece between the two where we step in with the infrastructure. We operate out of Singapore and we're part of Hill House, which is one of Asia's largest institutional investors. And much of our focus is on the hard science that stands behind the precincts themselves.
So when we look around at a precinct, we try and find out what's missing. And what we often find is that you've got incredible science in the case of Australia, phenomenal science on a global scale. But with a whole bunch of people who aren't necessarily that connected to the markets for that science, to the people that they might otherwise need to collaborate with, and whilst they might be incredibly good at what it is that they're researching, they're not necessarily good at understanding where those best connections are that take them from their bench top to their market. The Life Science Incubator is that gateway, and it provides connectivity across Australia, Singapore, India, South Korea, Japan, right across Asia between the small companies and the large pharmaceutical companies and other scientific players.
It is the meeting point and the gateway between those two different groups. Okay. Why Brisbane then? I think if you look around at Brisbane, it's got a pretty incredible set of metrics. If you look at Asia broadly, APAC represents 60% of the world's population. It contributes 40% of global GDP, and it's expected to drive 50% of global GDP growth. If you then turn around and you say, okay, where across Asia do I actually want to base myself? I want to base myself somewhere that's got proximity. And within an eight-hour flight of Brisbane, you can get to nearly half the world's population in a single sector. That's incredibly important.
Why is global capital increasingly investing in life sciences?
You want to be somewhere that has relatively strong civic infrastructure rule of law, all of the government's protections around IP and so forth, and a... highly talented, mobile, flexible workforce. When you look around at the places where that can occur within Asia, there are a number. I mean, you can find that in Tokyo, you can find it in South Korea, you find it in Singapore, and certainly you can find it in some of the Australian cities. But I think what makes Brisbane unique is the mix of those cities combined with some of the things that we don't necessarily think traditionally around. If you think about Brisbane has got the largest hospital network in the southern hemisphere at the Hurston Health Precinct, where you've got pure integration between public and private hospitals, research institutes, universities, all co-located in one place.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:24
2
What makes Brisbane an emerging biotech hub?
0:24–0:43
3
What is the vision behind the Life Science Incubator at QIMR?
0:43–3:30
4
Why is global capital increasingly investing in life sciences?
3:30–5:37
5
How does AI influence scientific research and innovation?
5:37–8:22
6
What unique advantages does Brisbane offer for biotech investments?
8:22–9:10
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from FEAR & GREED | Business News
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