The Hindu Business Line : Singapore is streets ahead of India in biotech race

"Drug company Eli Lilly's research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore has an Indian as its chief. Some of the staff and scientists at the Singapore centre are also from India. But, the operations itself are not located in India," says an Indian corporate honcho familiar with the developments. And in this statement lies a tale on the biotech race between the two countries.

Biotech may be a sunrise industry in India but it has an aggressive competitor in Singapore. The Asian counterpart has marched streets ahead by not just creating a conducive environment, but also by establishing the necessary infrastructure to "entice" research-oriented companies to flock to Singapore.

"A prime reason why Singapore is chosen over India is because they protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Companies take their R&D and clinical trial operations to Singapore because they see clarity in regulation, besides other financial benefits," observes the corporate-chief who has a base in Singapore as well.

"A host of measures have been taken to make Singapore a hub for biomedical sciences in Asia. And these initiatives cover segments like pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotech and healthcare," said Mr Tan Choon Kiat, Senior Officer-Healthcare with Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB).

From basic research to clinical trials, product and process development, full-scale manufacturing to venture capital funds and healthcare delivery, Singapore is going the whole hog to realise its vision of becoming a knowledge-based economy.

Singapore's commitment to bio-medical sciences is reflected in Biopolis, a cluster of seven buildings built at "Singapore's typical breakneck speed". Dedicated to R&D, the site houses public and private initiatives in the sector.

At an investment of Singapore $300 million, phase I of the project was thrown open in October last year, and phase II would take another four to five years, the EDB official said.

"EDB earlier targeted US and European companies. But now, we are looking at the Asia-Pacific, at China and India too," he said.

Only about two years ago, pharma multinationals such as Eli Lilly and Novartis established their R&D centres in Singapore to research tropical diseases. Lilly has a budget of $140 million over five years at it's Centre for Systems Biology in Singapore, where it looks to accelerate the drug delivery process for the parent company.

"Singapore is a good destination for clinical trials, since we have a multi-ethnic population, a developed clinical and regulatory infrastructure, adherence to international standards and we protect IPR," said Mr Kiat.

EDB expects that Singapore's bio-medical sciences cluster willclock about Singapore $12 billion in terms of manufacturing output by 2005.

Besides companies, such as Pfizer, Schering Plough, Wyeth and Siemens that have operations in Singapore, local and international biotech companies looking at drug discovery are also making a beeline to the city. They include, ES Cell International (involved in human embryonic stem cell research), MerLion Pharmaceuticals (natural product-based drug discovery) and Via-Cell (cell therapy research), the EDB official said.