Singapore's pharma sector exceeds aims

The Biomedical Sciences (BMS) industry's manufacturing output grew to S$15.8 billion (€7.5 billion) in 2004, a 33.2 per cent increase over the year before. Value-added (VA) also showed a 48 per cent growth reaching S$10.1 billion. Employment also grew by 6.7 per cent to 9,225 in 2004.

The figures, announced by Singapore's biomedical sciences (BMS)​ initiative, identified a figure of S$12 billion by 2005. The BMS industry's performance in 2004 meant the target was exceeded by a third. Pharmaceuticals contributed S$13.9 billion or 88 per cent of the total BMS manufacturing output, with employment expanding by 7.4 per cent compared to 2003. Medical Technology enjoyed a 6.0 per cent growth in manufacturing output reaching S$1.9 billion in 2004.

Singapore's strong reputation as a strategic manufacturing base for global pharmaceutical companies with Novartis Pharma AG announcing plans to build a production facility.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) also completed an expansion to its existing manufacturing facility in Singapore and also have plans to invest in a Process Technology Centre.

GSK also established a preclinical research facility for neurodegenerative diseases in Singapore. This was GSK's first such facility in Asia Pacific and Singapore's third pharmaceutical corporate R&D centre, the others being Novartis (Switzerland) and Eli Lilly (US).

Pfizer opened its multi-purpose manufacturing facility, making Singapore home to its first large-scale active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing plant in Asia.

There were also significant new projects in Medical Technology with MDS Sciex , a subsidiary of Canadian-based MDS Inc, which announced it would set up a facility to produce its industry leading mass spectrometers, its first outside Canada.

Progress in Singapore's homegrown pharma companies also did not go unnoticed. A-Bio Pharma (Singapore) commenced its first major partnership with leading vaccines company GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (Belgium) to develop and manufacture new generation vaccines. S*Bio (Singapore) has developed a highly competitive oncology program focused on the development of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and is on track to deliver its first clinical development candidate in 2006.

MerLion Pharmaceuticals (Singapore) entered into further partnerships with Schering-Plough and NovImmune for natural product drug discovery. Leading stem cell company, ES Cell International (Singapore), received a resource infrastructure enhancement award from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a research grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to develop newly-derived non-xenograft human embryonic stem (hES) cells for use in the production of hES cell-derived islets for the treatment of diabetes.

The growth in Singapore's manufacturing capabilities is a result of the resources the country has committed to this sector. Investment group Bio*One Capital has provided significant outlay to a number of investments. One example of an investment in a Singapore-based company is Maccine, a preclinical service provider that supports drug development activities in Singapore. Bio*One Capital's investment helped Maccine build its capabilities and enabled the company to strengthen its operations in Singapore.

Bio*One Capital's Innovate 'N' Create (INC) scheme was also responsible for the start-up of the new company, ProTherapeutics, which was seeded under this scheme, jointly with A*STAR's Exploit Technologies. The company seeks to commercialise sublingually delivered peptide therapeutics based on research funded by the National University of Singapore and BMRC.

Attogenix Biosystems and Merlin Medical which received INC funding in 2002 and 2003 respectively, continued to progress well beyond the seed stage and are expanding their activities. Attogenix's high throughput reaction array biochip (AttoChip) and real time sequence detection system (AttoCycler) will be launched in 2005, while Merlin Medical, which received the important CE Mark approval for its coronary stent in 2004, is actively developing novel intracranial stents.

In looking ahead, Singapore's deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan announced the new target for Singapore's BMS industry to be S$25 billion in manufacturing output and an employment of 15,000 by 2015. 2005 growth was expected to be modest as various BMS plants settle down after the significant ramp up in capacity over the past few years.

As for investment commitments in 2005, the report was cautiously optimistic despite the challenges confronting the pharmaceutical industry such as competition from generics and the recent high profile product recalls.