Mr S Iswaran at the Biomedical Asia Conference 2009

Speech BY mR s iswaran, senior minister of state FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY, AT THE BIOMEDICAL ASIA CONFERENCE 2009 ON Tuesday, 17 march 2009, 0900 hrs, AT SUNTEC CITY CONVENTION CENTRE, BALLROOM 3

Mr Richard Ireland,

Chief Executive Officer of Terrapinn Asia Pacific

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning,

Introduction

1I am pleased to join you this morning at Biomedical Asia 2009, a forum for business and scientific leaders to address the challenges confronting the global biomedical sciences industry, and to discuss the role Asia can play in the new frontiers of growth in science and business.

Asia Presents New Growth Opportunities

2Against the current backdrop of the global economic crisis, the biomedical industry continues to face significant challenges arising from declining R&D productivity, the rise of generics and the pressure on price and margins.In recent weeks, we have seen a wave of consolidation among the big pharma companies, partly in response to these fundamental challenges.

3Nevertheless, the biomedical sector continues to have good long term growth prospects, particularly in Asia.The growing middle class, higher disposable incomes coupled with greater awareness of health issues, as well as an ageing population, are key drivers that underpin the industry’s potential in Asia.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. Besides an expanding market, Asia also presents a vast and diverse pool of scientific and business talent, many of whom were educated in top universities in the U.S. and Europe. The sheer size of this market, and its talent and resource base, underscores the scale of potential opportunities.

Expanding into Asia and Global Markets

4Today in Singapore, we host more than 130 international biomedical sciences companies, and we are already witnessing an expanding base of activities in response to the growth of Asia.In the past year alone, Genzyme and Takeda announced the establishment of their regional headquarters in Singapore, while Advanced Medical Optics and Millipore opened their regional training centres for eye surgery and biologics manufacturing, respectively.

5In manufacturing, Alcon announced its new facility, and Wyeth announced its US$96 million expansion in TuasBiomedicalPark, both of which are aimed at meeting the expanding demand in Asia’s markets. Just last month, Abbott joined the community of manufacturers at Tuas by officially opening its largest global nutrition facility

Addressing R&D Bottlenecks

6Besides manufacturing, Abbott also opened its pharmaceutical analytical research lab and announced plans for a nutrition science R&D centre in the Biopolis this year. Schering-Plough launched its Translational Medicine Research Centre, which will carry out biomarker discovery and development, and serve as the company’s focal point for non-invasive imaging. Abbott and Schering Plough join global companies such as Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Takeda that have established an R&D base in Singapore to collaborate with our research and medical institutes in driving drug discovery and development.

7Since 2000, when we started our effort to develop the biomedical industry, Singapore has continued to develop world-class infrastructure and capabilities to support through-train drug candidate development to proof-of-concept activities. The Biopolis is one key research campus that co-locates public sector research institutes and corporate R&D labs. Its proximity to the Kent Ridge Campus, where our public hospital and medical school are located, also facilitates translational and clinical research activities.

8Just last year, Singapore also invested more than S$350 million in specialised research facilities at the Kent Ridge Campus. They include the Centre for Translational Medicine and the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, which is headed by Prof Daniel Tenen from Harvard. In February this year, we announced the establishment of a S$150 million Mechanobiology Research Centre of Excellence, which is headed by Prof Michael Sheetz from Columbia University and Prof Paul Matsudaira, formerly from MIT.

9To complement the build-up of such key resources, Singapore has also awarded S$125 million in five Translational and Clinical Research Flagship programmes. These programmes would bring together scientists and clinicians to work on diseases such as gastric cancer, glaucoma, schizophrenia, dengue fever and metabolic diseases. These projects work with our patient population which embodies the genetic diversity of Asia’s main ethnic groups.

The Importance of a Collaborative Approach to R&D

10As companies worldwide seek to develop new therapies and diagnostics to expand their pipeline of innovative products, research collaborations with the public sector and, indeed, other companies will help to enhance R&D productivity.

11In October 2008, the Eli Lilly Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery inaugurated a new research collaboration model that allows for networking, outsourcing and risk sharing with contract research organization, as well as pharmaceutical and biotech firms. Eli Lilly’s Fully-Integrated Pharmaceutical Network (FIPNet) model is a departure from the incumbent Fully-Integrated Pharmaceutical Company (FIPCO) model, in which most activities are done in-house.

12Today, Singapore has established a base of world-class research and medical institutes that are partnering leading companies in their R&D activities. In 2008, AstraZeneca and Bayer Schering Pharma announced their collaborations with Singapore’s National University Health System and National Cancer Centre to carry out translational and clinical research for cancer drugs in Asia. This year, GlaxoSmithKline announced its collaboration with the Bioprocessing Technology Institute to carry out vaccine and process development, while 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.

13In the realm of licensing, our homegrown company, S*BIO, has concluded agreements with Onyx and Tragara to develop and commercialise its cancer drugs. Under these agreements, S*BIO will potentially receive more than US$600 million in payment.

14Through these linkages forged in a tightly networked research community in Singapore, we envision that Singapore will continue to acquire knowledge in Asian disease biology, thereby providing companies with key insights to develop more effective therapies for the Asian market.

Singapore’s Commitment to Develop Industry

15Singapore has made good progress over the past eight years in developing the biomedical sciences sector. We take a long-term perspective of the sector and are confident of its future growth potential.This is especially important for an industry in which products typically take between 12 to 15 years before they are approved for distribution in the market.

16As we build our infrastructure and capabilities, we also seek to help companies retain and enhance their talent base in these challenging times. In this year’s Budget, the Government announced broad-based initiatives such as the Jobs Credit Scheme and Economic Development Board’s Prep-Up initiative, which will help companies address the cost of wages and support them in capability development efforts. These will position our companies well to capture the opportunities that will arise when the global economy sees an upturn.

Conclusion

17While Asia presents new markets and talent, we need to navigate the region’s complexities and leverage on its diversity to harness these opportunities. Singapore, being well connected and proximate to key regional markets and an attractive destination for Asian talent, is uniquely positioned to help companies and researchers. In addition, Singapore has served as an international cross-roads and ideas exchange where regional and international partnerships are mooted, discussed and brokered

18I therefore hope that this week’s conference and meetings in Singapore will serve as a good platform to foster collaboration and further your scientific and business aspirations, as we strive to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of people in Asia and beyond.

19I wish you all a productive conference.Thank you.