The Biomedical Sciences industry is fast becoming a key pillar of Singapore's economy. In 2003, the manufacturing output of the Biomedical Sciences industry grew to S$11.3 billion, representing a 15.9 per cent increase over the year before.
Pharmaceuticals contributed $9.5 billion or 84 per cent of this output. Biomedical manufacturing is enjoying strong growth in Singapore, with a significant 33 per cent manufacturing output growth to S$15.8 billion in 2004. This growth will continue as global pharmaceutical companies set up or expand their manufacturing activities in the country.
Seven of the top fifteen pharmaceutical companies have major manufacturing operations in Singapore with total fixed asset investments of more than S$5 billion. Given the current pace of growth, Singapore may reach the target manufacturing output of S$20 billion by 2010.
The breadth and depth of the biomedical sciences manufacturing activities is testimony of Singapore's track record in high value-added manufacturing, technology leadership and intellectual property protection. It also underscores our ability to effectively support the supply of products to global markets through good infrastructure, excellent manpower capabilities and efficient logistics.
Singapore has built strong capabilities in basic and clinical research and activities in this area have been growing significantly over the last decade. Singapore is ideal for clinical research and clinical trials management because of its consistent business environment, excellent communications infrastructure, highly skilled manpower, established regulatory infrastructure and strong IPR regime.
About 60 percent of the7,000 multinational companies have decided to manage their regional operations from Singapore because of its global connectivity, world-class infrastructure, highly skilled workforce and pro-business environment. Singapore's regulatory and intellectual property protection infrastructure is acutely attuned for pharmaceutical and medical technology companies to leverage on for their R&D activities.
The world's leading clinical research organizations (CROs) have well established operations in Singapore. These companies not only work with Singapore hospitals to conduct scientifically demanding trials, they have also set up regional hubs in Singapore to direct their clinical development activities in the region. Examples include Quintiles, Covance, ICON, MDS Pharma, PPD and Gleneagles Clinical Research Centre (GCRC). Many pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Schering-Plough have also chosen to set up their own clinical trials coordination centers in Singapore.
The city-state is rapidly building up capabilities in contract biologics manufacturing through Lonza and A-Bio. A-Bio, Asia's first biologics contract manufacturer, provides a full range of manufacturing solutions for mammalian cell culture systems, including process development, optimization, manufacturing scale-up, GMP production, quality control and regulatory compliance.
A-Bio recently announced that it had secured its third process development and clinical supply service agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. Lonza, one of the world's leading custom manufacturer of chemical intermediates, active ingredients and biopharmaceuticals for the pharmaceutical industry, is establishing a state of the art biologics manufacturing facility in Singapore, which will be operational by 2009. This will be the first commercial scale mammalian cell culture facility in Singapore.