CHICAGO, May 4 /PRNewswire/ --Singapore‘s integrated research network that offers multidisciplinary capabilities across basic and translational research has drawn pharmaceutical and biotech companies that seek to improve R&D decision making and accelerate innovation in Asia. The Biopolis’ expansion is a key initiative amongst many to meet companies’ rising need to capitalize on Asia‘s growth story.

“Leveraging Singapore’s close-knit research community and clinical research infrastructure, companies are well-positioned to develop cost-effective, efficacious therapies more quickly for Asia and global markets. Within just one decade, Singapore has emerged as a key partner for leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies that seek to accelerate drug discovery in Asia,” said Professor Edward Holmes, Executive Chairman, National Medical Research Council, and Deputy Chairman, Biomedical Research Council (A*STAR), Singapore.

Global pharmaceutical companies with R&D bases in the Biopolis include Abbott, Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Novartis, and Takeda. Recent biotech additions to Biopolis include Inviragen and FORMA Therapeutics. Today, 4,300 researchers carry out biomedical sciences R&D in more than 50 companies and 30 public-sector research institutes, academic medical centers and hospitals. R&D expenditure in 2008 exceeded US$700 million.

Partnering Singapore to improve R&D productivity

As companies grapple with the complexities of discovery science that is further accentuated by Asia‘s unique disease biology, Singapore‘s integrated research network presents a strong partner to optimize the drug and discovery process.

• In January 2010, Roche entered into a strategic alliance with Singapore‘s scientific and medical institutions to set up the Roche-Singapore Hub for Translational Medicine, which will focus on expanding knowledge of disease biology to develop new personalized treatment approaches.

• Lilly-Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD) is partnering with the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS) and the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) to advance drug discovery using adult stem cells. LSCDD is also part of the Asian Cancer Research Group, which was jointly established by Lilly, Pfizer and Merck & Co. earlier this year to accelerate research and improve treatment into an area of great unmet medical need lung and gastric cancers in Asia. Over the next two years, Lilly, Pfizer and Merck & Co. will create a database composed of data from approximately 2,000 tissue samples from patients in Asia with lung and gastric cancer. Lilly will be responsible for ultimately providing the data to the research public through an open-source concept managed by the LSCDD.

• Italian-based SienaBiotech S.p.A. is partnering two research units under Singapore‘s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) the Experimental Therapeutics Center (ETC) and Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) to develop drug therapies for cancer and targeted antibodies for bone diseases respectively.

• In March 2010, Rhapsody Biologics, a spin-off from SIgN, licensed a portfolio of technologies to create a new Personalized Peptide Vaccine (PPV) platform that is highly accurate in predicting and optimizing peptide vaccines. Rhapsody is in talks with major pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines based on the PPV platform.

• Mitsui Co., Ltd. entered into an equity agreement in January this year with Singapore-based CRO, Gleneagles CRC, to strengthen its Asian clinical trials platform. Mr. Masami Iijima, President, Mitsui, said, “In Europe and North America, manufacturers are speeding up the development of new drugs by carrying out clinical trials in Asian countries. With its operations in twelve Asian countries, Gleneagles CRC is well-positioned both to accelerate development and to reduce costs for pharmaceutical companies.”

Expanding R&D resources

Singapore is expanding its resources for biomedical sciences R&D to accommodate the fast-growing base of companies that seek to develop therapies to address Asia‘s unmet healthcare needs. Key developments include:

• The Biopolis a biomedical research hub that co-locates public-sector institutes and private-sector corporate labs is slated for a 460,000 square-feet expansion that will bring its total research space to more than 3 million square feet. The Biopolis is developed by JTC Corporation.
• In 2009, Investigational Medicine Units were launched at Singapore‘s two key academic medical centers in Kent Ridge and SGH Campuses that co-locate hospitals with medical schools.
• In March 2010, National University Health System (NUHS) signed an agreement with Harvard University‘s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to collaborate in research, clinical care and education.

In October 2009, Singapore gained acceptance into the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD) framework. With this OECD-MAD status, preclinical data from Singapore‘s GLP-accredited research partners and CROs such as Maccine will be accepted by some 30 OECD and non-OECD members, including the United States, European Union and Japan.

In November 2009, three renowned clinician-scientists received the Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator Awards, which was launched in 2008 to recruit top-notch global clinician-scientists to achieve better clinical applications and outcomes in medical research and mentor young researchers in Singapore. The three STaR awardees in 2009 are Prof Phillip Koeffler who was Director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Prof David Matchar who was a director of the Center for Clinical Health Policy Research at Duke University Medical Center; Prof Bin-Tean Teh, who is the director of Van Andel Research Institute International.

For more information on how Singapore is helping the biomedical science companies expand their footprint in Asia, please visit the Singapore Pavilion (Booth No. 5320) or www.biomed-singapore.com.

About Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)

EDB is the lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore‘s position as a global business center and grow the Singapore economy. We dream, design and deliver solutions that create value for investors and companies in Singapore. In so doing, we generate economic opportunities and jobs for the people of Singapore; and help shape Singapore‘s economic future.

‘Host to Home’ articulates how EDB is sharpening its economic development strategies to position Singapore for the future. It is about extending Singapore‘s value proposition to businesses not just to help them improve their bottom line, but also to help them grow their top line. EDB plans to build on existing strengths and add new layers of capabilities to enable Singapore to become a ‘Home for Business’, a ‘Home for Innovation’ and a ‘Home for Talent’.

For more information about Singapore‘s biomedical sciences sector, please visit www.biomed-singapore.com.

About International Enterprise Singapore

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore spearheads the development of Singapore‘s external economic wing, leading Singapore-based companies on overseas missions and trade shows.

Our mission is to promote the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises and international trade. With a global network in over 30 locations and our 3C framework of assistance Connections, Competency, Capital, we offer services to help enterprises export, develop business capabilities, find overseas partners and enter new markets. At the same time, we work to position Singapore as a base for foreign businesses to expand into the region in partnership with Singapore-based companies.

Please visit www.iesingapore.com for more information.

About JTC Corporation

JTC Corporation (JTC) is the lead agency in Singapore to plan, promote and develop a dynamic industrial landscape, in support of the nation’s economic advancement. Currently, the Corporation has under its management many developments including four wafer fab parks, an advanced display park, two business parks, a chemicals hub at Jurong Island, biomedical parks in Tuas as well as logistics hubs for aerospace, chemical and general warehousing industries.

JTC also plays a catalytic role in introducing leading-edge real estate solutions - such as Seletar Aerospace Park; Jurong Rock Cavern and specialized research facilities at one-north - to anchor important activities critical to the growth of the economy. The 200-hectare development at one-north, which houses the Biopolis, Fusionopolis and Mediapolis, provides a niche and creative R&D space within a work-live-play-learn setting.

In line with its vision of making Singapore the choice investment location, JTC is committed to providing a pro-business environment for its customers and optimizing land resources to meet the needs of industries and enterprises. For more information on JTC, please visit www.jtc.gov.sg.

SOURCE Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)