Business

Saturday May 16, 2009

Looking at the bigger picture

OPTIMISTICALLY CAUTIOUS BY ERROL OH


SIME Darby Bhd has done a great job building up the anticipation ahead of its announcement on Tuesday.

Its invitation to the media dangled some tantalising details. The company would unveil a “significant scientific breakthrough” and “renowned scientists from established universities” would be there.

The company would say no more. And so people were left guessing. Could it be something to do with the palm oil genome? After all, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) was in the midst of sequencing the genome.

And we knew Asiatic Development Bhd, through Asiatic Centre for Genome Technology Sdn Bhd (ACGT), had embarked on a similar project because there had been some publicity.

But Sime Darby had never said anything about going into genomics. So it seemed unlikely that the Tuesday event was related to the oil palm genome.

Of course, unlikely things happen all the time, and Sime Darby declared that it was the world’s first company to decipher the genetics of the oil palm.

The project completed the sequencing, assembling and annotating of the genome in March.

Subsequently, ACGT says it has done the same, only three months earlier.

“ACGT worked with Synthetic Genomics Inc and completed the sequencing, assembling and annotation of not one but two varieties of the oil palm genome – the Dura and the Tenera – with 98% coverage in December 2008,” says CEO Derrik Khoo in an email.

“This is the most comprehensive sequence and analysis of the genome and we are the first in the world to have done this.”

(American biologist J. Craig Venter, who has attained almost celebrity status as a maverick scientist, is the founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics.)

Back in May 2008, ACGT announced the completion of a first draft assembly and annotation of the genome.

According to a website for the Human Genome Project, which was co-ordinated by the US Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, the difference between draft sequence and finished sequence is the “depth of coverage”.

Additional sequencing was done to close gaps, reduce ambiguities and limit errors to a specified standard.

In other words, more work had to be done to get from draft to completion.

Khoo sets out the project chronology:

·Whole genome sequencing (8 times coverage) completed around July/August 2008.

·Assembly completed in September 2008.

·First annotation was completed in December 2008.

An automatic question: Why not announce the completion of the sequencing, considering ACGT had gone big with the first draft in May?

“ACGT’s preferred approach is more action and less talk. It’s the best policy, and one that works,” says Khoo.

What about Sime Darby then? Didn’t it consider the possibility that ACGT might have been a step ahead? Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd managing directors says his company was aware of ACGT’s May 2008 event.

“We didn’t bother keeping track of what they had achieved. We were not sure where they were and we decided to go ahead,” he explains.

At a press conference on Tuesday, when asked if Sime Darby has beaten ACGT to the tape, Azhar replied: “I don’t think there’s a winner and there’s a loser here. At the end of the day, it’s the industry that gains.”

He may be right, there is a bigger picture to consider here. Azhar contends that it’s a waste to have three different databases on the oil palm genome. He urges other plantation players to collaborate with Sime Darby to make use of its genomic data.

But that puts Sime Darby in the driving seat when negotiating the terms of collaboration, and surely some of the others fancy having the same level of control.

Also, the genomic data is an asset, and those who have already invested in their projects will want to extract returns from the information gathered in the projects.

So, like it or not, ACGT and MPOB will pursue their own strategies in making use of their own databases.

And here’s the key point. Mere ownership of the data is of little value. It’s what the owner does with the data that makes a difference.

The biggest gainers will be those who are the most innovative and strategic in working with others to come up with products and services based on the genomic data.

It’s a harsh fact of life that nobody remembers the guy who came in second ... unless he makes more money than the person who beats him. As Azhar says, it’s all about dollars and cents.

·Deputy business editor Errol Oh says it’s always possible that the third-placed competitor will end up doing better than No. 1 and No. 2. Just look at American Idol.

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