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.