S'pore's biomedical industry a success

S'pore's biomedical industry a success

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore is becoming a successful international biomedical
hub more quickly than planned, the government said Wednesday as
GlaxoSmithKline announced an expansion of its operations in the
city-state.

Trade Minister George Yeo said the industry's output for this
year would likely hit 12 billion Singapore dollars (seven billion
US), 12 months ahead of schedule and double the 2000 figure.

"In the last three years, Singapore's efforts in the
biomedical sciences have yielded better results than what we
could have reasonably expected," Yeo said at a press conference
to open an expanded GlaxoSmithKline facility.

"We (have) achieved a certain reputation in the international
biomedical community for our openness to new ideas and our
willingess to try new things.

"The Biopolis (biomedical industrial park), which opened in
October last year, has become the hub for biomedical research."

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-headquartered multinational
pharmaceutical company, has been one of the biggest firms
attracted to Singapore's biomedical facilities.

On Wednesday it announced the completion of a 100-million-
dollar expansion of its manufacturing facility in Singapore and
said it planned to invest another 50 million dollars to develop a
technology center.

The expanded manufacturing facility will provide increased
capacity to make more fluticasone propionate, a compound used to
produce GlaxoSmithKline's portfolio of respiratory medicines,
such as Seretide, Flixotide and Flixonase.

GlaxoSmithKline, which has invested more than one billion
dollars in Singapore and employs 600 people here, hopes to
complete the proposed technology center by late next year.