The Malaysian biotech sector is set to benefit from RM13.7 ($3) billion government funding into healthcare, and a recently announced stimulus package worth RM60 ($16) billion, which also includes biotech. This cash injection will help Malaysia strengthen biotech links with India, in particular, and China, countries which the government views as a strategic platform to Western markets. “We need to go regional before going global and get good companies coming in,” says Selvam Ramaraj, vice president of healthcare, BiotechCorp, the federal agency charged with developing biotech through policy and funding. In 2005, the Malaysian government identified biotech as a key driver for growth and has made it a priority since then. Foreign or local companies with strong R&D proposals can acquire so-called BioNexus status, which grants ten tax-free years from the first year of generating a profit. So far, there are 97 BioNexus companies, mostly startups, including 38 healthcare, 33 agricultural and 23 industrial biotechs as well as three bioinformatics companies. Aurigene, a Bangalore, India–based small-molecule and peptide drug discovery [service] company; Olipro Biotechnology, Kuala Lumpur, a microarray diagnostics firm; and the regenerative medicine company Stempeutics, Bangalore, are among them. “Although biotech is a young industry here, we are expecting positive growth,” says Ramaraj.