Reaping rewards with own ventures
IT HAS been almost two decades since National Academic Award winner Prof Dr Asma Ismail successfully commercialised Typhidot, a diagnostic kit to detect the typhoid disease.
Charging into an uncharted territory from academics to business, the road to marketing her research team’s product was undoubtedly a bumpy one, but everyone involved had their eyes on the eventual goal — creating something of their own.
That was the mid-1990s and now, 18 years down the road, Typhidot has raked in over RM11mil (and counting) and is currently sold on a large scale in 12 countries.
Prof Asma and her team have since launched three other typhoid-related products into the market and hold 12 patents for their innovations.
Despite their impressive list of achievements, Prof Asma, who swept the National Academic Awards’ Innovation and Product Commercialisation Award in 2006 for Typhidot, still feels strongly for the struggles of those in academia who are trying to turn their ideas into successful businesses.
“Everyone is asking why our universities are winning so many gold medals (at academic exhibitions) but the commercialisation aspect is still not there.
“The fact is that the commercialisation success rate in the country is about 3% to 5% and it hasn’t improved very much in the last 10 years,” Dr Asma said in a recent interview at her office in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang.
Prof Asma, who is USM’s deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation, said the very nature of knowledge-based products put investors on the back foot from the beginning.
“Knowledge-based innovations normally take some time before they see a profit, and venture capitalists are not so keen to enter longterm, deep-pocket investments.
“Most of these companies prefer to invest, see a profit and exit in five years. However, knowledge-based products take longer than this and companies who invest must keep up their investments through this time,” Prof Asma said.
She said this required a lot of faith on the part of the investor, who must have solid belief in the quality of Malaysian scientists.
“In the early years (after a product had been commercialised) you have to keep believing ... it’s almost like blind faith!
“But, those are the rules of the game in a knowledge-based economy which I personally think our (country’s) environment is not yet ready for. We are still more resource-based.
“We talk about an innovation economy but in truth, we haven’t yet moved very much in terms of having R&D products from universities of which we can set up niche industries,” Prof Asma said.
She said the government was doing its part by pledging RM600mil into research universities for R&D next year and setting up government-linked venture capitalists to invest in local innovations, but the country still had a long way to go.
“It is my fervent hope that the innovation ecosystem in Malaysia be made more conducive but in order to do that, we need the venture capitalists, the government, the industry and the universities to all work together.
“Countries like Korea and the United States are really into this, but we in Malaysia, are still hesitant to invest in Malaysian R&D,” she said.
The reward of a successful partnership is, however, a more than worthy goal as the country can begin relying on its own citizens to move the economy, Prof Asma added.
“My thinking is this, if we are very dependent on the multinational corporations (MNCs), what happens if they pack up tomorrow and leave?
“A lot of people will be retrenched and we have seen this happen before in the computing field.
“So, it is very important that we have our own companies,” Prof Asma said.
She said the presence of MNCs would continue to be good for the country, as they brought in foreign exchange, but sustainability was also essential for the country to grow and thrive.
“It doesn’t matter if what we start is small - you start it and then, build it bigger.
“That is our new challenge,” she said.