When it comes to clustering, Australian biotech could take a few lessons from the nation's wine industry -- and not just the grapes, David Binning finds.

CK Life Sciences, the biotech child of Asian business tycoon Li Ka Shing, will this month start an Australian trial of an AIDS vaccine drawn from ancient Chinese herbal remedies after inking a $600,000 deal with the Swinburne University Graduate School of Integrative Medicine.

Much to the chagrin of those actually at the coalface, the technical achievements of our leading scientific institutions and successful partnering with industry to bring them to market have long been tainted by the myth that not enough is being done and other countries are doing it better.

Advances in techniques for growing neurons, stem cell research, genetics, proteomics and massively improved capabilities in imaging are opening up previously undreamed-of avenues to treat sufferers of everything from epilepsy, stroke, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, paralysis and psychosis.

While scientific discovery is often regarded as absolute, the rules of law seem much more fluid, governed by a mish-mash of regulations and precedents across myriad jurisdictions ensuring that even success in gaining patents or defending intellectual property in court is no long-term guarantee in biotech.

Having been promised the world, impatient shareholders of Sydney-based separations company Gradipore were demanding answers at Thursday's company AGM at the Australian Stock Exchange.

The Kerry Packer-backed financial services and venture capital (VC) group Challenger International is nearing the end of negotiations to form a biotech VC fund out of Singapore which will trawl for investment opportunities across Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the company revealed on Wednesday.

Perched at the top of the ABN Amro Building in the heart of Sydney's 'big end' of town, Sean Mordaunt, business development manager with Challenger International's Corporate Superannuation Fund, thrives on the manic energy pulsing through the busy business hub and the harbour below.

Great strides made in the areas of genomics, proteomics and other key features across the developing biotech landscape have dramatically altered the playing field for bioinformatics groups Asia is now expected to realize a massive surge in demand for IT systems as the region races to catch up with the rest of the world.

Australian biotech hopeful Peptech got the green light from the US patents office for its Tumour Necrosis Factor Antibodies technique this week.