Biomedical executives from China visit NZ

A delegation of 40 Chinese biomedical business executives will be in Auckland today for a conference designed to boost New Zealand's business with the country.

The New Zealand Jiangasu Economic Trade forum will allow Chinese business people from the Jiangasu region, an area with a population of 75 million, to mix with New Zealand biomedical and health experts.

NZBio Auckland chairman Peter Bradley said it was the first time a delegation of that size had come to New Zealand and if successful contacts were made it could be worth a lot of money.

"It's difficult to quantify what it would be worth to New Zealand but it would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Bradley said the conference was designed to provide collaboration opportunities to combine New Zealand innovation with the manufacturing capabilities of China.

Those opportunities could include selling New Zealand biomedical products such as manuka honey into China, licensing Kiwi intellectual property to the Chinese for manufacturing or a distribution agreement to make products in China and then sell them to the world via China's larger pharmaceutical companies. "We see opportunities especially in the bioactives area - naturally sourced substances that have some sort of health potential - to take their manufacturing skills and take what we do best, which is innovation, and apply it to a much broader application."

Bradley said the cost of bringing therapeutics products to the market was high and it was difficult to raise money in New Zealand. The delegation comes at a time when New Zealand bio-techs are facing a particularly tough time.