Singapore drives pharma industry forward
biomedical science (BMS) initiative and is now pushing the second
phase forward in order to drive growth in its pharma industry
further.
The first phase of Singapore's BMS initiative ran for the five years between 2000 and 2005 and exceeded expectations, Keat Chuan Yeoh, director of Biomedical Sciences Group at the Singapore Economic Development Board, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com. "During this time the industry grew its manufacturing output to S$18bn (€9bn), exceeding the target of S$12bn by 50 per cent," said Yeoh. "Eight out of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies now have plants in Singapore – mainly for making bulk active ingredients and intermediates – although Schering Plough, Novartis and Merck all have tableting facilities." The first phase of the BMS initiative was designed to build up core capabilities in Singapore's biomedical research industry and introduce key foreign and local human capital and infrastructure initiatives. The second phase currently underway aims to build on this and the government has set aside a S$1.4bn investment for the purpose. "Our main focus now will be setting up infrastructure for translational research, such as imaging and animal testing facilities," said Yeoh. In addition, he said the country is investing heavily in training clinical scientists and putting in place 'lab to clinic' research programs in oncology, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, infectious diseases and optical medicine. "These are the areas that we believe Singapore has its strengths in and pose the biggest potential for regional market growth," he said. As for the country's already-blossoming pharma manufacturing industry, Yeoh said that there are a number of initiatives in place aimed at driving this further forward. "We are looking to see what else can be done to increase our productivity and competitiveness in this area," he said. In particular he gave the example of the Pfizer Trigen plant - a special facility the pharma giant is setting up in order to curb its carbon dioxide emissions – and the first of its kind in Singapore. "The facility, which uses a technology called trigeneration, will support the utility needs of Pfizer's plant in Tuas Biomedical Park and should cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 17 per cent a year," said Yeoh. "It will require an investment of S$8m to set up and once it is up and running by the end of next year, the facility could cut the annual utility costs at Pfizer's plant by about eight per cent, or US$600,000 (S$944,000)." Trigeneration works by producing three types of utilities - electricity, steam and chilled water - from a single integrated system, and is said to increase energy efficiency by about 20 per cent compared to conventional systems. "Looking forward, we now hope to generate S$25bn worth of pharma manufacturing revenue by 2015," said Yeoh. "Biologic drug manufacturing, which is just starting to take off in Singapore, is expected to be a key component of this."
