Natural beauty

Natural Resources Buoy Chilean Biotech
Country’s Riches Could Be Used to Attract Much-Needed Capital and Technology
Robert Yuan, Ph.D.
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Grupo Bios comprises three companies: BiosChile, BiosWerfen, and Austral Biologicals, all focused on different aspects of human and animal health.
An article in the April 1 issue of GEN described the environment for biotechnology in Chile and the various government programs intended to promote its advancement. The main priority has been R&D that will strengthen the country’s major export industries, all of which are based on natural resources.
This article will focus on the companies that make up Chile’s biotech industry—some 70 companies, most of them small in size. Many of these firms are members of the The Chilean Association of Biotechnology Companies.
The Grupo Bios is composed of BiosChile, BiosWerfen, and Austral Biologicals. The Grupo, which reported annual sales of $13 million last year, is primarily focused on human and animal health. While the basic technologies in use by the three companies are similar—monoclonal antibodies and genetic engineering—each firm pursues a different business strategy.
BiosChile manufactures and markets a series of diagnostic kits, including kits for blood typing, pregnancy, Chagas III (a disease common to South America), and the salmon pathogen, Piscirickettsia salmonis. BiosChile also provides oligonucleotide synthesis services and has developed a salmon vaccine in collaboration with Fundacion Ciencia para la Vida.
BiosWerfen markets kits and reagents for clinical laboratories, including PCR kits, products for in vitro fertilization, and reagents for lab testing.
Faced with logistical difficulties and credibility issues associated with clinical reagents originating in Latin American labs, Grupo Bios established Austral Biological in San Ramon, CA. The nascent firm markets growth factors, cytokines, transcription factors, and monoclonal antibodies in the U.S. and other industrialized countries.