INVEST IN AUCKLAND
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Bioscience

Bioscience

Auckland bioscience companies have attracted around $300 million in international investment in the past five years, and it’s not hard to see why. Half of New Zealand’s core bioscience companies are based in Auckland, tapping the region’s excellent research institutes, universities, talented scientists and entrepreneurs.

 Their clinical success has also been aided by the concentration of support services in the legal, patenting, accounting and investment fields, which has created a snowball effect, attracting top talent and fostering specialisation.

The bioscience sector in Auckland tends to cluster in and around the city centre. The location of the University of Auckland plays a significant role in this, carrying out research for start-up companies, leading research initiatives and completing clinical trials.

It also houses the Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology (IIB), a bio-business incubator that exemplifies the collaboration between industry and science in Auckland. Auckland City Hospital, the university’s teaching hospital, is nearby.

This emerging cluster has become a knowledge exchange between companies, institutions and scientists, fanning further growth.

Quick facts

  • 47 per cent of New Zealand’s core bioscience companies are located in Auckland, accounting for 61 per cent of national bioscience expenditure and 57 per cent of income
  • Over 3,000 highly skilled people work in bioscience research, commercialisation, production and support services in Auckland
  • Auckland’s cost-competitiveness and New Zealand’s convenient clinical trial regulations (e.g. medical device clinical trials do not require regulatory approval) offer invaluable opportunities.
  • The University of Auckland conducts 100 of the current 700 clinical trials in New Zealand.

Source: Statistics New Zealand Bioscience Survey 2009

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