Holista Colltech’s Rajen Manicka and his 17-year fight to take Malaysian-linked collagen innovation global
- ID
- 21461
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 04 Sep 2026, 7:55 PM
- Fetched
- 04 Sep 2026, 8:41 PM
- Provider
- Digital News Asia
- Category
- malaysia-tech
- Original URL
- https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/business/holista-colltechs-rajen-manicka-and-his-17-year-fight-take-malaysian-linked-collagen
- Source URL
- https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/rss.xml
Summary
- Score
- 3.5
- Created
- 04 Sep 2026, 8:41 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_startup_founders
What happened
ASX-listed Holista Colltech and HKEX-listed Swang Chai Chuan formed a 50:50 JV (Ovicoll Pty Ltd) with RM5 million funding from SCC and technical expertise from Holista to commercialize ovine collagen wound dressings, targeting a US$460M–810M segment. Dr Rajen Manicka describes a 17-year journey involving USM, UTM, MOSTI, NanoMalaysia, and several Australian and US universities, with early 2009 Cleveland Clinic research showing ovine collagen comparable to bovine collagen for wound treatment—relevant given US mad cow disease concerns around bovine-derived material.
Why it matters
For Malaysian startup founders, this is a concrete case study in commercializing deep-tech research through cross-border JVs: one ASX-listed entity providing IP and another HKEX-listed entity providing RM5M plus distribution, targeting a specific US wound-care market segment. The 17-year timeline and multiple university/government collaborations illustrate how long research-to-product cycles run in regulated biotech—useful context for anyone considering deep-tech ventures versus software.
Discussion angle
What does a 17-year commercialization timeline tell us about the gap between Malaysian research output and go-to-market—and whether software founders should ever touch deep-tech or regulated industries?