Biomedical researchers keen to commercialize their discoveries were left stranded last month when the APEC Technomart III conference and trade fair in Australia closed shop after only two of its scheduled six days. APEC economies, including the US, The People's Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Russia, Japan, New Zealand and Indonesia, were expected to generate 30,000 visits to 11 conference venues, but fewer than 3,000 people turned up, sending the operating company, PacRim Technomart, into liquidation.

On day one, the director of Melbourne's Baker Medical Research Institute, John Funder, told visitors that the Australian government was "scientifically and technologically illiterate" in failing to move fast enough to cash in on the biotech revolution. By day two, exhibitors, who had paid up to AUS$30,000 (US$19,000) for their displays, were inclined to agree, and some speakers were addressing audiences of fewer than ten people. On day three, some of Australia's well-known biomedical researchers—including Mark von Itzstein, whose work led to the development of the influenza drug zanamivir, and Ian Gust, director of R&D for vaccine manufacturer CSL—were flying in to Queensland's Gold Coast to deliver their papers just as exhibitors were pulling down their stalls.

"I've never heard of this happening before," Peter Timms, director of DNA research at the Queenland University of Technology center for diagnostic technologies, told Nature Medicine. "It's a very competitive world and this was an important thing for us to get right...I hope that it hasn't done a huge amount of damage [to Australian research]."

Last year's Technomart, held in Chinese Taipei, generated deals worth a total of AUS$275 million in medicine, defence, agriculture and information technology. Some observers blamed the 1999 collapse on the failure of the private sector operators to deliver an affordable event, even propped up by AUS$500,000 in government funds.

For biotech-promoting politicians like Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who had personally invited delegates during trade missions to Asia and North America, the collapse was a disaster, moving him to plead "let's not let this one incident cast a cloud over the excellent reputation and work" being done in Australia.