Mr S Iswaran at the BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Life Sciences Industry Awards 2009

Speech BY mR s iswaran, senior minister of state FOR TRADE&INDUSTRY, SINGAPORE, AT THE biospectrum asia pacific life sciences industry awards 2009 ON 5 march 2009, 2015hrs, AT the legends, fort canning park

Mr Pradeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, CyberMedia Group;

Mr Abraham Mathew, Chief Editor, BioSpectrum;

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening,

Introduction

I am pleased to join you today at BioSpectrum’s inaugural Asia Life Sciences Industry Awards, to celebrate and recognise leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation in Asia’s biomedical sciences industry.

Asia is an important market for the biomedical sciences industry. According to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan (January 2009), the Asian healthcare market is valued at US$240 billion and is expected to grow between 5 to 10 per cent this year. In this regard, even as the global pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences industry grapples with the problems of declining R&D productivity and competition from generics, Asia presents a ray of hope with its expanding market opportunities for both global and Asian biomedical sciences companies.

Against this backdrop, Singapore’s global bio-cluster is well-positioned as a strategic partner for Asia-Pacific companies that seek to expand into Asia and global markets.

Strategic Base to Expand into Asia and Global Markets

Today, Singapore is host to more than 130 international biomedical sciences companies that have established operations here to reach out to Asia and the world.

Given our excellent connectivity with Asia’s key markets and our leading supply chain capabilities, many international companies have located strategic headquarter functions here. In addition, companies can tap into the pool of global and regional talent who are drawn to our cosmopolitan city-state.

Accelerating R&D in Singapore

Singapore’s rapid developments in R&D have also attracted companies here to develop new therapies and medical devices for the global market.

Today, more than 50 companies are carrying out drug discovery, translational and clinical research as well as medical technology innovation, many in partnership with Singapore’s research institutes.

These include Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, which have carried out clinical trials for drug-eluting stents at the National Heart Centre. And last year, AstraZeneca and Bayer Schering Pharma announced their collaboration with Singapore’s research and medical institutes to carry out translational and clinical research for cancer drugs in Asia.

Just last month, Eli Lilly announced its partnership with the National NeuroScience Institute and the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences to advance drug discovery using adult brain tumour stem cells.

Eli Lilly counts amongst the leading pharmaceutical companies that have established an R&D base in Singapore to collaborate with Singapore’s research and medical institutes in order to drive drug discovery and development. Also, in the first two months of the year, Schering-Plough opened its first Translational Medicine Research Centre, while Abbott announced its pharmaceutical analytical research laboratory and Asia-Pacific Nutrition Science R&D Centre, all located at the Biopolis.

The biomedical sciences industry is an important part of Singapore’s economy. In 2008, this sector contributed 22.2% of our manufacturing value-add, and was the second largest contributor amongst the sectors within manufacturing.

Since 2006, when we entered the second phase of our biomedical sciences initiative, Singapore has committed S$1.55 billion to develop our infrastructure and capabilities in translational and clinical research, to drive discovery from bench to bedside, and, ultimately, to the market. In addition, SPRING and the National Research Foundation announced last year, the availability of S$125 million in proof-of-concept grants that include medical technology innovation.

Leveraging our existing base of purpose-built infrastructure for both biopharmaceutical and medical technology activities, which include the Biopolis, Fusionopolis, the Kent Ridge Campus and the Outram Campus, Singapore will continue to work on building our capabilities and key facilities to support the industry’s latest development

It has been only eight years since we in Singapore commenced our focused effort to develop the biomedical sciences sector and we have made good progress. We are confident of the future growth of the sector and continue to adopt a long-term perspective. This is especially important for an industry in which products typically take between 12 and 15 years before they are approved for distribution in the market

As such, amidst the current economic uncertainties, we remain committed to the continued development of this sector. In addition, we also aim to help companies retain and enhance the talent base.Broad-based initiatives such as the Jobs Credit Scheme and Prep-Up will help companies address the cost of wages and support them in their capability development efforts. These will help companies to be well-positioned to capture the opportunities that will arise when the global economy sees an upturn.

Conclusion

In closing, I would like to thank the management and staff of CyberMedia and BioSpectrum for launching the inaugural Asia Life Sciences Industry Awards in Singapore. Just as Singapore provides a strategic meeting point to forge research partnerships and launch expansion into Asia, I hope today’s function will serve as a good platform to foster collaborations, as we work together to harness Asia’s opportunities and expand into global markets.

I would also like to congratulate all the award recipients.Your perseverance and success is an inspiration to the entire industry.

Thank you.