OUTPUT by Singapore's drug factories jumped by over a third last
year, pushing overall biomedical production up by 30.2 per
cent.
This robust growth puts biomedical output at a record $23 billion,
almost four times production in 2000.
More than 90 per cent comes from pharmaceuticals, with the rest
from the medical technology sector, a field that makes devices such
as heart valves.
Singapore will soon have a new kind of factory on the biomedical
scene - cutting-edge plants manufacturing human vaccines and other
drugs derived by culturing living cells - a highly advanced field
called biologics.
The fledgling biomedical sector already accounts for one quarter of
the gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the manufacturing
industry as a whole, making it second only to electronics, which
accounts for 29 per cent.
The figures on the health of the biomedical sciences cluster, which
were released yesterday, also showed that it employed 10,571 people
last year, up 3.9 per cent from 2005.
A further 1,800 jobs will be created when new biomedical
investments committed last year are fully realised, a process that
typically takes three to four years.
These new commitments will be worth about $2.3 billion in
additional GDP a year.
New plants coming on stream include Singapore's first
commercial-scale biologics facilities as well as plants by
pharmaceutical giants Abbot and Merck.
New entrant Abbott's planned $450 million facility, for example,
will be its largest nutritional plant.
International players also continue to set up research programmes
here, one of the latest being the Novartis Institute for Tropical
Diseases' new malaria research programme.
The Government target for the biomedical sector to generate $25
billion in output and 15,000 in jobs by 2015 looks within reach,
said Mr Yeoh Keat Chuan, executive director at the Economic
Development Board for the biomedical sector.
'The outlook is very positive for biomedical sciences, which means
we are likely to achieve our targets early,' he said.
At the research and development (R&D) level, the number of
biomedical research scientists and engineers has grown from 2,055
in 2001 to 4,054 at last count.
Biomedical research units linked to the Agency for Science,
Technology and Research (A*Star) have also chalked up 15 patents,
since their first one in 2002, in areas such as virology and
bioimaging tools.
The foundation for biomedical sciences has been set, according to
Mr Philip Yeo, outgoing A*Star chairman.
'For the last five years, we have done basement one, first floor,'
he quipped, leaving successor Lim Chuan Poh and his team to build
the second and third floors.
EDB's biomedical investment fund Bio*One Capital - designed to
nurture firms contributing to the sector's growth - ploughed $114
million into 16 projects last year. Some products from its
portfolio companies are entering the trial stage.
Bio*One plans to continue supporting firms in biologics as well as
those in medical technology and small molecules translational
projects.
What the Government plans to push next is something called
'translational research' or bringing medical innovations from the
laboratory to the hospital bed, and finally on to the
marketplace.
(Straits Times, 7 Feb)
