The Australian biotechnology sector is experiencing a renaissance, says peak industry group AusBiotech.
The sector is recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis and benefiting from the slowdown in investment in the resources sector, AusBiotech chief operating officer Glenn Cross says.
"We are undergoing a renaissance," Mr Cross told AAP as he attended the AusBiotech conference in Melbourne.
Between 2009 and 2012, only four biotechs listed on the Australian share market, and all had come from North America, Mr Cross said.
"We hadn't had an IPO (initial public offering) from an Australian company," he said.
The global financial crisis had effectively closed capital markets, but money is now starting to flow again.
Regenerative medicine company Regeneus raised $10.5 million in an IPO in September, the first local biotech listing since US firm Osprey Medical listed on the ASX in May 2012.
IPOs are being considered by animal therapeutics researcher Nexvet and New Zealand's Innate Immunotherapeutics.
Mr Cross said investors were shifting capital away from small resources companies and looking at the biotech sector, which shares a similar high risk and reward profile to the mining sector.
And, like resources, biotechnology is a long-term investment.
Mr Cross said Australia has the sixth largest biotech and life sciences sector in the world after the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
Many Australian biotechs had now been around for seven years or more and entering the late stages of their research and trials.
Global pharmaceutical companies have shown keen interest in the Australian biotech sector, Mr Cross said.
Australian companies are doing well in the areas of medical devices, regenerative medicine and stem cells, vaccines and oncology therapies.
Ausbiotech said Australia's biotech sector was worth $32 billion, and its 350 to 400 companies were generating greater income from exports than the wine or auto-manufacturing sectors.
In September 2013, the 93 biotech companies listed on the share market had a market capitalisation of around $52.3 billion.
