pharmaceuticals singapore report 2013

1

SingaporePharma reportJanuary 2013

Acknowledgements

Focus Reports would like to warmly thank

Singapore’s government agencies for being exceptionally welcoming and supportive of our report. In particular, we would like to thank Angeline Leow, Singapore Economic

Development Boards’ Senior Officer of Marketing & Communication, and Evelyn Ho, Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Deputy Director of Corporate

Communications.

3

This report was prepared by Focus ReportsProject Director: Mary Carmen Luna Matuk Project Coordinator: Aleksandra Klassen. Publisher: Ines Nandin Editor: Fred Gebhart

CopyrightAll rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical or otherwise including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior written consent of Focus Reports.While every attempt is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this report, neither Focus Reports nor the authors accept any liabilities for errors and omissions. Opinions expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the authors.

CONTENTS

INTERVIEWS

5 SINGAPORE: The little red dot that did6 Building the buttressing blocks9 The big guns: brandishing or re-polishing?10 Amidst the flux, Singapore is a beacon11 Emerging markets: navigating the pearl in the oyster13 The silicon valley of the East15 Japan’s home away from home17 Does Singapore have the answers? 18 Interview with Joseph Lam, managing director of Beacons Pharmaceuticals

20 INTERVIEW WITH: John C W Lim - CEO, Health Sciences Authority

22 INTERVIEW WITH: Swee-Yeok Chu- CEO & President, EDBI

24 INTERVIEW WITH: Dr. Benjamin Seet - Executive Director, A*STAR - Biomedical Research Council

26 INTERVIEW WITH: Fabio Landazabal – Senior VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific, GlaxoSmithKline

28 INTERVIEW WITH: David Utama - President & CEO, GE Healthcare - ASEAN

30 INTERVIEW WITH: Augusto Muench - Regional Director, South East Asia & Managing Director, Singapore Boehringer Ingelheim

32 INTERVIEW WITH: Mark Smedley - President Asia-Pacific & Japan, Life Technologies

34 INTERVIEW WITH: Yoh-Chie Lu - Executive Chairman, Biosensors International Group

36 INTERVIEW WITH: Thomas Dunlap - President and CEO, HOYA Surgical Optics

38 INTERVIEW WITH: Dr. John R. Thornback - Chief Executive Officer, Dx assays

At MSD, we work hard to keep the world well. How?

By providing people all around the globe with innovative

prescription medicines, vaccines, and consumer care

and animal health products. We also provide leading

healthcare solutions that make a difference. And we

do it by listening to patients, physicians and our other

partners — and anticipating their needs.

Not just healthcare.

We believe our responsibility includes making

sure that our products reach people who need them,

regardless of where they live or their ability to pay.

So we’ve created many far-reaching programs and

partnerships to accomplish this. You can learn more

about them at msd.com.

We continue on our journey to redefine ourselves to

bring more hope to more people around the world.

Our goals are clear and our commitment is fierce.

We are dedicated to solving problems and pursuing

new answers.

MSD - Asia Pacific HQ MSD International GmbH (Singapore Branch) 600 North Bridge Road #10-01/10 Parkview Square Singapore 188778 T (65) 6305-8400

Copyright ©2011 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA. All Rights Reserved.

AD_MSD FP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:46 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

5Special SponSored Section

JanUarY 2013 FOCUS REPORTS S2

Singapore report

This sponsored supplement was produced by Focus Reports.

Project Director: Mary Carmen LunaProject and Editorial Coordinator: Aleksandra KlassenProject Publisher: Ines NandinEditor: Fred Gebhart

For exclusive interviews and more info, please log onto or write to [email protected]

T housands have followed Tom Waits’ “we sail tonight for Singa-pore” beckoning call.

Today, Singapore is the second most densely populated country on the planet (after only Monaco,) with a population of over five million in 435 square miles.

Ranging from the quaint—Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urging Singa-poreans to procreate—to the ascetic—a hard-line legal system where capital punishment is allowed—the govern-ment blankets the city-state. Occasion-

ally, it is difficult to decipher whether its denizens are living in a contemporary “1984,” which has managed to convince the rest of the world of its superiority, or whether an administration can really be so cohesive and so responsive that the public’s universal woes are eradicated.

So call it an Orwellian-esque tale, “Asia-light”, as it is called by excited greenhorns and haughty expats alike, or the Silicon Valley of the East. In under 50 years, Singapore has managed to de-velop a knowledge-based economy. For

The Little Red Dot That Did“Status” by Jane LeeSINGAPORE: SINGAPORE:

6 Singapore pharma report January 2013

Singapore reportSpecial SponSored Section

S3 FOCUS REPORTS JanUarY 2013

the seventh consecutive year it has been awarded the best business environment by the World Bank and currently ranks as the 4th highest GDP per capita.

Most executives across the pharmaceutical industry agree—Singapore does not represent any question marks in the future. Furthermore, Singapore’s location is ideal for reaching markets east, west, north and south, which form the powerhouse that is Asia Pacific.

Building The BuTTressing BlocksIt is precisely Singapore’s ability to fill in the blanks of global demand that enables it to consistently evolve and convert con-ventional disadvantages—size to agility, inexperience to en-terprise—in order to designate itself as a hub for you-name-it.

In order to make biomedical sciences the fourth pillar of the economy (after electronics, engineering and chemicals), Singapore needed to solve two problems: Make the island a prime location for manufacturing in order to lure more multi-nationals (MNCs) and build infrastructure to enhance R&D capabilities. That meant increasing hospitals’ and universi-ties’ capabilities to conduct translational clinical research as well as acquiring both homegrown and recruited talent.

The solution—the Biomedical Science Initiative (BMS Initia-tive)—developed in 2000 with the goal of creating a sustain-able biomedical sciences industry.

The trilogy of the government organizations responsible for creating the BMS– The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which attracts investment into Singapore; EDB Investments (EDBI), the strategic corporate investment arm, and Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, which promotes local research and talent– all insist that their commitment is unyielding and that the initiative is on track.

From 2011 to 2015, the government has committed SGD 16.1 billion (USD 13.2 billion) to R&D, of which about 40 percent has been allocated to biomedical sciences—a 12 per-cent increase from the previous budget allocation, explains Benjamin Seet, executive director of the Biomedical Research Council of A*STAR.

This four-year span is considered the third phase of the initiative, which consists of working with the industry to gen-erate improved economic outcomes.

The biomedical sciences manufacturing output has al-ready increased four-fold from SGD 6 billion per year (USD 5 billion) in 2000 to SGD 27 billion (USD 22 billion) in 2011. Furthermore, 22 percent of the total manufacturing value-added is derived from biomedical sciences.

In order to keep the momentum, the EDB is continuing to pursue their “Host to Home” strategy, which aims for Sin-gapore to become companies’ home in Asia, rather than just being a host. After laying the groundwork for many “firsts”, Bio*One, (the government’s biomedical sciences investment division), is harnessing recent success in the medical tech-nologies industry. Its past achievements include establishing S*BIO, Singapore’s first private R&D company, and Mac-cine, the first preclinical company in Singapore.

Completing the trilogy is A*STAR. In addition to devel-oping indigenous talent with a full “pipeline that extends as far into the future as 2022,” A*STAR has enacted a Master Research Collaboration Agreement (MCRA) that has been

Keat Chuan Yeo, Executive Director Singapore Economic Development Board

Swee Yeok Chu, President & CEO EDBI - Economic Development Board Investments

Benjamin Seet, Executive Director, Biomedical Research Council (A*Star)

AXE BRANDAXE BRANDMEDICATED OIL

84 South Bridge Road, Leung Kai Fook Building,Singapore 058714www.axebrand.com.sg

AD_LKF_FP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:47 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

Keat Chuan Yeoh, Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board

7

AXE BRANDAXE BRANDMEDICATED OIL

84 South Bridge Road, Leung Kai Fook Building,Singapore 058714www.axebrand.com.sg

AD_LKF_FP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:47 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan




signed by compa-nies like Roche and GE Healthcare.

The dynamic of what Seet describes as MNCs moving “towards open in-novation and lever-aging on public sec-tor research rather than developing ev-erything in-house,”

will provide opportunities for collabora-tion. The MCRA will enable MNCs to work with different public institutions, including A*STAR institutes, universi-ties, and hospitals, from one single entry point.

In addition, the Health Sciences Au-thority (HSA), Singapore’s regulatory authority; the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), have played

integral roles in fostering interconnectivity to further advance the BMS.

Although there have been setbacks in consolidating the Biopolis of Asia, like the 2010 closing of the Lilly Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery, Singapore is still attracting investments from big names. Novartis has committed USD 500 million to construct a biotech man-ufacturing facility. Proctor & Gamble’s (P&G) 105,000 square foot, USD 192 million Innovation Center in the Biopolis is scheduled to be fully operational by mid-2013.

James Kaw, the director of the Singapore Innovation Center, cites the country’s strength in the biomedical field as one of the principal reasons P&G decided on this location. The center, P&G’s first in 20 years, will focus on beauty products, hair care, skin care, air care and personal health.

“What is important is that the industry continues to grow and the capabilities we have built are anchored in Singapore and can be redeployed,” says Keat Chuan Yeoh, managing director of the EDB.

Public-private partnerships (PPP) are part and parcel of the anchoring plan. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), for ex-ample, has a SGD 2 million (USD 1.6 million) PPP be-tween GSK Vaccines and A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Tech-nology Institute to collaborate on vaccine and adjuvant system-related research projects. In 2010, GSK launched the GSK-Singapore 10 Year Strategic Roadmap in part-nership with the EDB. A joint fund of SGD 50 million

James Kaw, Director Singapore Innovation Center (P&G)

Gro

ss E

xpen

ditu

re o

n R

&D

(G

ERD

) $

m

R&

D Expenditure as a percentage of G

DP

(%)

R&D expenditure in Singapore (1990-2010)

• GERD grew elevenfold from $0.57 bil to $6.5 bil• BERD grew thirteenfold from $0.3 bil to $3.9 bil

0.00

1,000.00

2,000.00

3,000.00

4,000.00

5,000.00

6,000.00

7,000.00

8,000.00

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Total R&D Expenditure ($m)

Private Sector R&D Expenditure ($m)

Public Sector R&D Expenditure ($m)

AD_Maccine QP Phex Singa_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:47 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

Special SponSored Section


(USD 41 million) is dedicated to building capabilities in the areas of green manu-facturing and healthcare policy in Asia.

The Big guns: Brandishing or re-polishing?While the global pharmaceutical mar-ket has been trundling along with around a 2 to 4 percent annual growth, China and Indonesia are leading Asian growth with approximately 15 percent annual growth, explains Rhenu Bhuller Frost & Sullivan’s Vice President of Healthcare for Asia Pacific. As the

pharma world continues to crane its neck towards the east, Asia is seen as a cornerstone for boosting sales. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, regional pharma sales have more than doubled from USD 97 billion in 2001 to over 214 billion in 2010 and are expected to reach 386 bil-lion by the year 2016.

“Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing regions in the world for us and our expectation is that it will continue growing in the coming years,” says Augusto Muench, re-gional director, South East Asia and managing director of Singapore for Boehringer Ingelheim (BI). Last year, 16 per-cent of the company’s total growth was attributed to the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Although Patrick Bergstedt, presi-dent of MSD, Asia Pacific believes that “the growth of the emerging markets has to counterbalance the pressure in the US and in Europe,” Asia is no lon-ger the low-hanging fruit. Opportuni-ties are riddled with challenges.

Besides a tougher healthcare envi-ronment that makes it costly to develop original compounds, Bergstedt says that Asia’s cost of entry is much higher

due to generic competition. “Also problematic are the hur-dles for doing clinical studies, getting drugs approved, and dramatically escalating reimbursements pressures.”

The situation is complicated and growth is stifled by the conundrum of funding.

“Governments want to properly expand healthcare ac-cess worldwide, therefore require proper funding for it. On the other hand, research based pharmaceutical companies, such as ours, with innovative molecules want to continue their research, which also requires funding.” In the middle of both, explains Muench, “there are physicians that need

Augusto Muench, Regional Director South East Asia & MD Singapore Boehringer Ingelheim

Fabio Landazabal, Senior VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific GSK

See what couldn’t be seen. Until now.

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Explore visionary sensitivity at

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AD_AB Sciex HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:47 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan



(USD 41 million) is dedicated to building capabilities in the areas of green manu-facturing and healthcare policy in Asia.

The Big guns: Brandishing or re-polishing?While the global pharmaceutical mar-ket has been trundling along with around a 2 to 4 percent annual growth, China and Indonesia are leading Asian growth with approximately 15 percent annual growth, explains Rhenu Bhuller Frost & Sullivan’s Vice President of Healthcare for Asia Pacific. As the

pharma world continues to crane its neck towards the east, Asia is seen as a cornerstone for boosting sales. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, regional pharma sales have more than doubled from USD 97 billion in 2001 to over 214 billion in 2010 and are expected to reach 386 bil-lion by the year 2016.

“Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing regions in the world for us and our expectation is that it will continue growing in the coming years,” says Augusto Muench, re-gional director, South East Asia and managing director of Singapore for Boehringer Ingelheim (BI). Last year, 16 per-cent of the company’s total growth was attributed to the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Although Patrick Bergstedt, presi-dent of MSD, Asia Pacific believes that “the growth of the emerging markets has to counterbalance the pressure in the US and in Europe,” Asia is no lon-ger the low-hanging fruit. Opportuni-ties are riddled with challenges.

Besides a tougher healthcare envi-ronment that makes it costly to develop original compounds, Bergstedt says that Asia’s cost of entry is much higher

due to generic competition. “Also problematic are the hur-dles for doing clinical studies, getting drugs approved, and dramatically escalating reimbursements pressures.”

The situation is complicated and growth is stifled by the conundrum of funding.

“Governments want to properly expand healthcare ac-cess worldwide, therefore require proper funding for it. On the other hand, research based pharmaceutical companies, such as ours, with innovative molecules want to continue their research, which also requires funding.” In the middle of both, explains Muench, “there are physicians that need

Augusto Muench, Regional Director South East Asia & MD Singapore Boehringer Ingelheim

Fabio Landazabal, Senior VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific GSK

See what couldn’t be seen. Until now.

The new AB SCIEX 6500 LC/MS/MS series with

multi-component IonDrive™ technology is the world’s

most sensitive triple quadrupole, improving sensitivity

up to 10X and detector dynamic range by 20X over

competitive high performance instruments – with

no compromise in mass range.

The new AB SCIEX 6500 Series. It’s the farsighted

successor to a long line of leading AB SCIEX mass

spec systems.

Explore visionary sensitivity at

www.absciex.com/6500

Exceedingly sensitive.

Sharply focused.

THE 6500 SERIES WITH IONDRIVE™ TECHNOLOGY

© 2012 AB SCIEX. For Research Use Only.

Not for use in diagnostic procedures. The trademarks mentioned herein are the

property of AB SCIEX Pte. Ltd. or their respective owners.

AD_AB Sciex HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:47 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan




to be able to provide those innovative products to patients that are in need.”

And if growth is ultimately guaran-teed, sustainability is not.

“I doubt that the current business model we operate in could withstand and be sustainable given these chal-lenges,” concludes Muench.

Fabio Landazabal, senior vice presi-dent and area director, Asia Pacific for GSK agrees: “The pharmaceutical model is at a stage where it might ben-efit from strategic collaborations with diverse industries such as IT and bank-ing.”

The industry is shifting towards the two-brains-are-better-than-one route. Collaborations and partnerships are seen, if not as a cure-all, then undoubt-edly as mandatory to cope with the complexities.

“In this perspective, we have to

forge partnerships to see how we can help play a role. The price of medi-cine is just one component; we have to look at the cost of healthcare, which includes the price of medicines, infra-structure, supply logistics, training of healthcare personnel, etc.,” says Berg-stedt, who is hoping to bring MSD up to third place in Asia Pacific, from its current rank of fifth.

amidsT The flux, singapore is a BeaconBig pharma has settled into Singapore quite comfortably. Companies ubiqui-tously echo that the supportive govern-ment, great IP landscape, plethora of talent, and superlative infrastructure and research capabilities, enable them to effectively watchtower the regional markets—a major reason why most MNCs have established their regional headquarters here as well as their man-ufacturing facilities and R&D sites.

Pfizer has eight business units in Singapore, including an API manu-facturing plant, which, according the Christina Teo, managing director of Pfizer Singapore, continues to be “one of the key drivers in the pharmaceuti-cal output sector.”

Although Singapore cannot com-pete with most of its neighbors in mar-

Patrick Bergstedt, President Asia Pacific MSD

Christina Teo, Country Manager, Pfizer Singapore

Tuberculosis (TB) is the current focus of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), an organization dedicated to the advancement of diagnostic testing for infectious diseases in developing countries. For more information, visit www.finddiagnostics.org.

Patients diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in an isolation ward in Manila.

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TB is, the second-leading killer among infectious diseases and primary cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS. The problem is compounded by TB’s resistance to drug treatment, limiting the options for over 650,000 patients annually.1

BD works with FIND to provide technology to high-burdened countries on terms that will enable them to purchase and implement products on a sustainable basis. Technology such as the BD MGIT™ offer fast and reliable information that can contribute to the reduction in spread and mortality of TB.

Named one of the World’s Most Admired Companies®2 as well as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies®,3 BD provides advanced medical technology to serve the global community’s greatest needs.

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1StopTB/World Health Organization, 2011/2012 Fact Sheet., 2FORTUNE®, March 2012, 3Ethisphere™ Magazine, April 2012 Please visit www.bd.com BD and BD Logo are trademarks of Becton, Dickinson and Company. © 2013 BD

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Singapore report


ket size, the country’s influx of medical tourists is a lucrative prospect for MNCs. Pfizer is enhancing their portfolio via tourists seeking specific healthcare services. “Since foreign patients will continue to drive our specialty care business,” Teo says, “we look forward to grow that niche (medical tourism) and aim to leverage on the foreign patients from countries like Vietnam, Myanmar, Middle East or Russia seeking medical treatments in Singapore,” particularly for oncology-related visits.

Pfizer is also tackling the local aging population. Teo hopes that alongside its chronic pain portfolio, Pfizer can “collaborate to build disease-oriented programs or preventive programs” in order for patients to “take better charge of their health through disease awareness and support programs.”

Market leader GSK has their regional headquarters (Emerging Markets Asia Pacific division) here, an R&D fa-

cility at the Biopolis, two global manufacturing and supply sites, a Stiefel manufacturing facility (post-acquisition of the company in 2009), as well as a state-of-the-art vaccines plant.

MSD also has substantial commitments. Singapore hous-es their regional headquarters and a factory that manufac-tures for global operations. MSD’s new Hepatitis C product, VICTRELIS, is exclusively produced here. MSD also has a translational research lab focusing on biomarkers in col-laboration with EDB and A*STAR.

Bergstedt says that in addition to the more than USD 2 billion MSD already invested into Singapore, the company has recently pledged to invest USD 250 million over the next decade.

As this region continues to grow, “within Southeast Asia, the role of Singapore will be key since it is a center of grav-ity, under which a lot of companies oversee the regional mar-kets,” concludes Muench.

emerging markeTs: navigaTing The pearl in The oysTerLet’s not be coy. Singapore’s population of 5.3 million does not present global companies many opportunities. However, access to 600+ million in ASEAN clearly does. And although being on site is mandatory for presence in China and India’s markets, some companies still use Singapore as a strategic location to juggle the goliaths. Almost half of the world’s population can be reached from this little red dot on the map.

Asia is far from homogeneous and its market fragmenta-tion has advantages and drawbacks alike.

The growing middle class is increasingly more educated and consumers have greater health awareness. The top tier of the market, prevalent most in Singapore, Korea and Aus-tralia, are increasingly purchasing branded pharmaceuticals.

Translational research has become another stake in the country’s com-petitive edge and the EDB stated that their prime fields of translation research: oncology, neurology, infec-tious, eye and metabolic diseases, have each been awarded a USD 25 million fund for five years.

Singapore’s rigorous efforts in attracting MNCs, promoting high-end service providers, and building biopharmaceutical infrastructure to

house and support a collaborative framework, particularly with in-stitutes such as A*STAR, is what prompted Maccine, a preclinical CRO specializing in translational research, to establish its facilities in the country.

“Although there was the intention to bring in a service provider, there was originally no vision of a service provider with a focus on translational science,” explains Leigh Berryman,

CEO of Maccine. “This came later, in the mid 2000s, almost concurrent with the realization of the financial necessity of understanding the sci-ence prior to going into the develop-ment process.”

Now, Berryman doesn’t see him-self anywhere else: “the translation capabilities in Singapore clinical and pre-clinical research are incredible, and it is definitely a major hot spot for translational research globally.”

Translational research capabilities in Singapore Spotlight: Maccine

Pharmaceutical 5,363

MedicalTechnology

8,563

Singapore Manufacturing Output For Year 2010

BMS ManufacturingOutput

S$22.0 billion (US$17 billion)(8.4% of Total Manufacturing Output)

BMS ManufacturingValue-Add

S$10.2 billion (US$ 7.9 billion)(3.9% of GDP)

Value-added per worker

* US$ �gures are based on an exchange rate of US$1.00 = S$1.29

Source: Singapore Economic Development Board

S$0.73 million (US$0.57 million)

Manufacturing Employment

Total 13,926


Singapore report


ket size, the country’s influx of medical tourists is a lucrative prospect for MNCs. Pfizer is enhancing their portfolio via tourists seeking specific healthcare services. “Since foreign patients will continue to drive our specialty care business,” Teo says, “we look forward to grow that niche (medical tourism) and aim to leverage on the foreign patients from countries like Vietnam, Myanmar, Middle East or Russia seeking medical treatments in Singapore,” particularly for oncology-related visits.

Pfizer is also tackling the local aging population. Teo hopes that alongside its chronic pain portfolio, Pfizer can “collaborate to build disease-oriented programs or preventive programs” in order for patients to “take better charge of their health through disease awareness and support programs.”

Market leader GSK has their regional headquarters (Emerging Markets Asia Pacific division) here, an R&D fa-

cility at the Biopolis, two global manufacturing and supply sites, a Stiefel manufacturing facility (post-acquisition of the company in 2009), as well as a state-of-the-art vaccines plant.

MSD also has substantial commitments. Singapore hous-es their regional headquarters and a factory that manufac-tures for global operations. MSD’s new Hepatitis C product, VICTRELIS, is exclusively produced here. MSD also has a translational research lab focusing on biomarkers in col-laboration with EDB and A*STAR.

Bergstedt says that in addition to the more than USD 2 billion MSD already invested into Singapore, the company has recently pledged to invest USD 250 million over the next decade.

As this region continues to grow, “within Southeast Asia, the role of Singapore will be key since it is a center of grav-ity, under which a lot of companies oversee the regional mar-kets,” concludes Muench.

emerging markeTs: navigaTing The pearl in The oysTerLet’s not be coy. Singapore’s population of 5.3 million does not present global companies many opportunities. However, access to 600+ million in ASEAN clearly does. And although being on site is mandatory for presence in China and India’s markets, some companies still use Singapore as a strategic location to juggle the goliaths. Almost half of the world’s population can be reached from this little red dot on the map.

Asia is far from homogeneous and its market fragmenta-tion has advantages and drawbacks alike.

The growing middle class is increasingly more educated and consumers have greater health awareness. The top tier of the market, prevalent most in Singapore, Korea and Aus-tralia, are increasingly purchasing branded pharmaceuticals.

Translational research has become another stake in the country’s com-petitive edge and the EDB stated that their prime fields of translation research: oncology, neurology, infec-tious, eye and metabolic diseases, have each been awarded a USD 25 million fund for five years.

Singapore’s rigorous efforts in attracting MNCs, promoting high-end service providers, and building biopharmaceutical infrastructure to

house and support a collaborative framework, particularly with in-stitutes such as A*STAR, is what prompted Maccine, a preclinical CRO specializing in translational research, to establish its facilities in the country.

“Although there was the intention to bring in a service provider, there was originally no vision of a service provider with a focus on translational science,” explains Leigh Berryman,

CEO of Maccine. “This came later, in the mid 2000s, almost concurrent with the realization of the financial necessity of understanding the sci-ence prior to going into the develop-ment process.”

Now, Berryman doesn’t see him-self anywhere else: “the translation capabilities in Singapore clinical and pre-clinical research are incredible, and it is definitely a major hot spot for translational research globally.”

Translational research capabilities in Singapore Spotlight: Maccine

Pharmaceutical 5,363

MedicalTechnology

8,563

Singapore Manufacturing Output For Year 2010

BMS ManufacturingOutput

S$22.0 billion (US$17 billion)(8.4% of Total Manufacturing Output)

BMS ManufacturingValue-Add

S$10.2 billion (US$ 7.9 billion)(3.9% of GDP)

Value-added per worker

* US$ �gures are based on an exchange rate of US$1.00 = S$1.29

Source: Singapore Economic Development Board

S$0.73 million (US$0.57 million)

Manufacturing Employment

Total 13,926


Delivering More Health and Bringing Value Through Innovation

Value through Innovation

Boehringer Ingelheim is a family owned pharmaceutical company

founded in 1885 by German entrepreneur Albert Boehringer. From

its beginnings, when it employed just 28 people, the company has

grown to become a global enterprise with over 43,000 employees

in 50 countries. Boehringer Ingelheim’s objectives and beliefs

can be summed up in a single vision: Value through innovation.

It recognises the balance between work and private life is not

only important to employees; it’s the key driver for the company’s

overall success.

In every city where it operates, they work closely with community

partners to understand where its resources - both financial and

volunteer - can have the greatest impact and do the most good.

Boehringer Ingelheim considers itself to be part of a global community

that feels strongly about making a difference for people at home and

around the world.

In South East Asia, Boehringer Ingelheim has been operating since

1963 with its Regional Center located in Singapore. Our 1,400+

employees in the area embark on a the daily task of delivering

innovation to society.

www.boehringer-ingelheim.com

For enquiries, please email us at [email protected].

AD_Boerhinger Ingelheim_FP Phex Singa_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:44 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan


Singapore report


But, the purchas-ing power does not come easy; con-sumers are more selective, thereby creating steeper competition.

In the lower, largely untapped markets (60 to 70 percent) of Asia Pacific (APAC), accessibility is the ma-jor hurdle. Plans by Indonesia and the Philippines to provide universal health-care by 2014 and 2016 respectively, further muddles the landscape.

But regardless of which market tiers are targeted, most are opting for a bottom-up approach. Companies real-ize that bulling through Asia does not work. Instead, strategic planning, flex-ibility, and reactivity are crucial.

The silicon valley of The easTAs part of the mushrooming BMS, Sin-gapore has been promoting the medical technology industry. Medtech’s shorter gestation period and faster growth than the pharma industry has proven increasingly attractive.

“Having catalyzed and built capa-bilities in the pri-vate sector R&D, Bio*One now focuses on later stage companies with products,” says EDBI’s Presi-dent and CEO, Swee Yeok Chu, citing medical de-vice companies that are looking to expand into Asian

markets as prime examples.According to the EDB, the medtech

industry almost tripled its manufac-turing output from SGD 1.5 billion (USD 1.2 billion) in 2000 to about SGD 4.3 billion (USD 3.5 billion) in

2011. The 2015 target is SGD 5 billion (USD 4.1 billion).

Profitability is spurred by big goals: medtechs aim to propel innovation, contribute to providing more patient-centric solutions and, according to the president of Life Technologies for Asia Pacific and Japan, Mark Smedley, to democratize science.

“We believe tools are what fun-damentally drive innovation,” says Smedley, who compares their “Ion Proton,” genome sequencer to Gali-leo’s telescope. It took a tool, the tele-scope, to transform Copernicus’ theo-ry into science.

asia: medtech meccaThe medtech mantra is converting growth into opportunity. Growth for the medtech industry in Asia is a giv-

en, according to Bhuller. China shows 20 to 22 percent annual growth while other Asian countries are growing be-tween 10 to 14 percent.

“The challenge is how” fast you can restore your basic operations that can support sustainable growth,” says GE’s Healthcare president of ASEAN, David Utama.

To build the foundation and keep in line with access, one of the three pillars of its “Healthymagination” campaign, GE has developed a novel approach to alleviate financing of their products.

“Normally the challenge for health-care practitioners is not cash flow, be-cause they have a good base of opera-tions. The challenge is buying for the first time,” explains Utama, who has facilitated working with one of the largest public banks in Indonesia to is-

May Kwai Cheong, VP, Central Asia BD

Jason Peng, VP Global Operations AB Sciex

OUT OF SINGAPORE...

The first FDA approved interventional

device developed in Singapore

Designed for treating blocked arteries in

lower extremities without stent implants

• Uniform Expansion

• Less Trauma

• No Bail-Out Stenting

• Better Results (Acute & Long-term)

Developed by Distributed by

AD_TriReme TP PhexSinga_1-1_1-1.pgs 12.19.2012 15:20 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan


Singapore report


But, the purchas-ing power does not come easy; con-sumers are more selective, thereby creating steeper competition.

In the lower, largely untapped markets (60 to 70 percent) of Asia Pacific (APAC), accessibility is the ma-jor hurdle. Plans by Indonesia and the Philippines to provide universal health-care by 2014 and 2016 respectively, further muddles the landscape.

But regardless of which market tiers are targeted, most are opting for a bottom-up approach. Companies real-ize that bulling through Asia does not work. Instead, strategic planning, flex-ibility, and reactivity are crucial.

The silicon valley of The easTAs part of the mushrooming BMS, Sin-gapore has been promoting the medical technology industry. Medtech’s shorter gestation period and faster growth than the pharma industry has proven increasingly attractive.

“Having catalyzed and built capa-bilities in the pri-vate sector R&D, Bio*One now focuses on later stage companies with products,” says EDBI’s Presi-dent and CEO, Swee Yeok Chu, citing medical de-vice companies that are looking to expand into Asian

markets as prime examples.According to the EDB, the medtech

industry almost tripled its manufac-turing output from SGD 1.5 billion (USD 1.2 billion) in 2000 to about SGD 4.3 billion (USD 3.5 billion) in

2011. The 2015 target is SGD 5 billion (USD 4.1 billion).

Profitability is spurred by big goals: medtechs aim to propel innovation, contribute to providing more patient-centric solutions and, according to the president of Life Technologies for Asia Pacific and Japan, Mark Smedley, to democratize science.

“We believe tools are what fun-damentally drive innovation,” says Smedley, who compares their “Ion Proton,” genome sequencer to Gali-leo’s telescope. It took a tool, the tele-scope, to transform Copernicus’ theo-ry into science.

asia: medtech meccaThe medtech mantra is converting growth into opportunity. Growth for the medtech industry in Asia is a giv-

en, according to Bhuller. China shows 20 to 22 percent annual growth while other Asian countries are growing be-tween 10 to 14 percent.

“The challenge is how” fast you can restore your basic operations that can support sustainable growth,” says GE’s Healthcare president of ASEAN, David Utama.

To build the foundation and keep in line with access, one of the three pillars of its “Healthymagination” campaign, GE has developed a novel approach to alleviate financing of their products.

“Normally the challenge for health-care practitioners is not cash flow, be-cause they have a good base of opera-tions. The challenge is buying for the first time,” explains Utama, who has facilitated working with one of the largest public banks in Indonesia to is-

May Kwai Cheong, VP, Central Asia BD

Jason Peng, VP Global Operations AB Sciex

OUT OF SINGAPORE...

The first FDA approved interventional

device developed in Singapore

Designed for treating blocked arteries in

lower extremities without stent implants

• Uniform Expansion

• Less Trauma

• No Bail-Out Stenting

• Better Results (Acute & Long-term)

Developed by Distributed by

AD_TriReme TP PhexSinga_1-1_1-1.pgs 12.19.2012 15:20 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan




sue credit cards with low in-terest options.

For companies like Becton Dickinson (BD), Indonesia is the fastest growing market in the ASEAN region. May Kwai Cheong, BD’s Vice President of Central Asia, believes that “as the government and even the private sector increase access, there will always be growth opportunities.”

Companies are scrambling to deflate the rising cost pressure that this broad-ening access surge will create. Cheong says that in order to continue growth, their main challenge will be coming up with “market appropriate products” for the emerging markets, which BD is doing in stages.

“As the region is so di-verse, we have a different strategy for each market,” says Cheong. “For every country that we consider as high potential, we work with consultants and then inter-nally develop a strategic plan for the respective market, which takes us around 3 to 6 months to design the plan be-fore we execute it.”

Medtechs have had another recent insight—retrofitting products from the US or Europe does not work. This is true particularly in emerging markets where, according to Kulbir Sandhu, the executive director of Greatbatch’s future Active Implantable Medical De-vice (AIMD) R&D Center, “patient

psychology, clinical practise, price point, regulatory compliance and reim-bursements” are all different.

With its first foray into Asia Pacific and also Singapore’s first AIMD cen-ter, Greatbatch, a US-based compo-nent supplier for implantables, will be “looking for the clinical opportunity, assessing and understanding what the clinical need is, and based on that we will define and design products (cardio-vascular, neuromodulation and ortho-paedics) out of this new R&D center,” Sandhu says.

nurturing the niche playersSingapore has further positioned itself to focus on producing technologies in select areas such as ophthalmologic, cardiovascular and orthopedics.

Eitan Konstantino, CEO, TriReme Medical

C

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CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Pfizer3-corp-ad-2012-FA-OL.pdf 1 23/11/12 1:19 PM

AD_Pfizer HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:44 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

15



sue credit cards with low in-terest options.

For companies like Becton Dickinson (BD), Indonesia is the fastest growing market in the ASEAN region. May Kwai Cheong, BD’s Vice President of Central Asia, believes that “as the government and even the private sector increase access, there will always be growth opportunities.”

Companies are scrambling to deflate the rising cost pressure that this broad-ening access surge will create. Cheong says that in order to continue growth, their main challenge will be coming up with “market appropriate products” for the emerging markets, which BD is doing in stages.

“As the region is so di-verse, we have a different strategy for each market,” says Cheong. “For every country that we consider as high potential, we work with consultants and then inter-nally develop a strategic plan for the respective market, which takes us around 3 to 6 months to design the plan be-fore we execute it.”

Medtechs have had another recent insight—retrofitting products from the US or Europe does not work. This is true particularly in emerging markets where, according to Kulbir Sandhu, the executive director of Greatbatch’s future Active Implantable Medical De-vice (AIMD) R&D Center, “patient

psychology, clinical practise, price point, regulatory compliance and reim-bursements” are all different.

With its first foray into Asia Pacific and also Singapore’s first AIMD cen-ter, Greatbatch, a US-based compo-nent supplier for implantables, will be “looking for the clinical opportunity, assessing and understanding what the clinical need is, and based on that we will define and design products (cardio-vascular, neuromodulation and ortho-paedics) out of this new R&D center,” Sandhu says.

nurturing the niche playersSingapore has further positioned itself to focus on producing technologies in select areas such as ophthalmologic, cardiovascular and orthopedics.

Eitan Konstantino, CEO, TriReme Medical

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Pfizer3-corp-ad-2012-FA-OL.pdf 1 23/11/12 1:19 PM

AD_Pfizer HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:44 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan


Singapore report


Niche players like AB Sciex and HOYA Surgical Optics, a global manu-facturer of intraocular lenses (IOLs) that is part of HOYA corporation, are using Singapore as a marketing tool.

Many doctors, especially from Asia, come to visit HOYA Surgical Optics’ manufacturing plant. “The visitors are really fascinated to understand what it takes to manufacture an intraocular lens, which look simple, but there is an incred-ible amount of precision technology in-volved,” says Thomas Dunlap, CEO of HOYA Surgical Optics.

Aside from their manufacturing and commercial footprint, AB Sciex opened the APAC Regional Application & Training Center in the Biopolis in 2012, which will function as a training center and as a lab to promote the capabilities of their mass spectrometry tools. Custom-ers who come to the center not only learn how to use the tools, but can also bring their own samples to test solutions.

Many of these companies believe that spreading themselves thin can compro-mise prime positioning.

“Unlike our main competitors, our singular focus frees us of conflicting pri-orities and distracting demands outside of our core busi-ness,” says Dunlap, who posits this will continue their dou-ble-digit growth.

“We will take a very strong posi-tion in the global market place, since we are aiming to be positioned amongst the top two companies in our core intraocular lens business,” Dun-lap says.

TriReme Medical produced Singa-pore’s first FDA approved implantable device, “Chocolate,” a PTA balloon

catheter. The device was invented and designed here, in collaboration with their team in Silicon Valley.

Eitan Konstantino, president and CEO of TriReme Medical, who also runs Quattro Vascular, an R&D start- up, calls Singapore a “sweet spot of qual-ity and cost.” Although manufacturing in Singapore is more expensive than in neighboring countries, Konstantino says that he is able to reduce costs by 75 per-cent as compared to California.

Like big pharma, medtechs are also tapping into Singapore’s crème de la crème talent.

“Singapore has an amazing talent base that in our niche—mass spectrom-etry (MS)—is really appreciated, since it is not easy to explain how MS works and here we find talent that learns it at a very fast speed, who are simultaneously very productive and efficient,” says Jason Peng, vice president of global operations for AB Sciex.

In spite of the industry’s manpower base more than doubling from about 4,000 to 9,000 in the last decade, execu-tives agree that more can be done to fos-ter indigenous talent.

“Singapore could improve in sustain-ability, by creating a home-grown re-search business, since we cannot depend on global leaders to do high-level re-search,” says Peng. He insists that trans-lating ideas into products will depend largely on local talent.

Japan’s home away from homeSingapore is also taking a piece of the Asia-frenzy. EDB’s “Host-to-Home strategy” is not exclusive to the west. Yeoh says that many Asian companies have been coming to Singapore to in-ternationalize.

Due in part to anti-Japanese protests in China, some Japanese companies have traded this once more appealing location for Singapore. According to China’s Ministry of Commerce data,

Thomas Dunlap, President & CEO HOYA Surgical Optics

Swee Yeok Chu, president & CEO of EDBI: Many local investors focus on revenue growth are more concerned with short-term gains and are less prepared to invest in BMS with its long invest-ment horizon. The BMS sector requires an investor to assess companies based on their potential – something that savvy investors are able to do. Be-ing able to appreciate this would enable promising companies to be sold for multiple times their investment cost even before their products have been brought to market.

Eitan Konstantino, president & CEO of TriReme Medical:In between “Round A” and the “late stage” where a company has a commer-cial product with sales of a few million USD and funding is feasible, there is a risky part that we describe as the “Valley of Death”. Most investors in Asia choose to avoid funding this stage. This is like driving across the desert, without enough fuel in your tank and no gas stations around. This part is the most challenging and is where most start-ups disappear.

Simranjit Singh, chairman of BioSingapore:There is a gap in financing, since there are not many venture capitalists in Singapore that support the life sciences industry. There is major government support in terms of seed funding, however getting beyond the first 500,000 is quite difficult.

Money Where the Mouth is: Are Asians Investing in Start-ups?




Japanese investments have declined con-siderably in the last quarter of 2012, as compared to the previous year, with a 32.4 percent drop in October.

Dunlap considers establishing HOYA Surgical Optics’ global head-quarters in Singapore as one of the com-pany’s biggest milestones.

“As a Japan centric company from

the start, we realized a number of years ago the need to become a global orga-nization and to expand our footprint,” says Dunlap. He adds that the company uniformly sees the world “being located in Singapore through a different per-spective,” a weighty comment from a vision-oriented company.

Another Japanese ophthalmic com-

pany, Menicon, developed their most coveted innovation—the world’s thin-nest one-day disposable contact lens—in Singapore, at its first manufacturing and R&D facility outside of Japan. Me-nicon invested over USD 100 million in the facility.

Koji Kawaura, managing director of Menicon in Sin-gapore, says that for a corporation that specializes in high-tech prod-ucts, Singapore is a perfect spring-board for devel-oped markets, facilitating better reach to Europe

and the US.“For most companies Asia is a cen-

tral part of the growth of their business, so it follows that R&D tends to expand in a similar way,” says James Garner, vice president and general manager of Takeda Global Research & Develop-ment Center, Asia (TGRD Asia). The center serves as Takeda’s regional hub for non-oncology clinical development in Asia, excluding Japan.

“Before this center was established, Takeda had limited clinical develop-ment activity in Asia. Since the creation of TGRD Asia, 12 percent of global clinical trial subjects are now recruited in this region,” he adds.

LKF Plant in China

Mun Sum Leong, Managing Director, LKF

Squeezed between the hordes of MNCs, who can blame the few surviv-ing local manufacturers, four, to be exact— Leung Kai Fook Medical (LKF), Beacons Pharmaceuticals, ICM Pharma, and Sunward Pharmaceutical—for having gripes?

“Our local pharmaceutical industries cannot compete head on with MNCs in terms of manufacturing and worldwide marketing,” says Mun Sum Leong, managing director of LKF, a second-generation family-run company that was founded in 1928.

To stay competitive, LKF, which manufactures a range of pharmaceuti-cal products, focuses on their star product, Axe Brand Medicated Oil, which is currently sold in over 50 countries. The multi-purpose oil is applicable for all ages, from younger generations who get headaches from being glued to computers, to the elders who have chronic pain, Leong explains.

“We believe that certain local products have a good standing in the global markets since many countries now believe in Asian herbal preparations as an alternative to western medicines,” sums up Leong, who has recently started utilizing tourists as makeshift distributors.

Others are diversifying their operations and share the view that reinven-tion is necessary to stay in the game. ICM Pharma muted their contract manufacturing operations for their pharma business and also entered the wellness sector with herbal supplements. Meanwhile, Beacons Pharma-ceuticals’ Managing Director, Joseph Lam, has spun out an entrepreneurial production space design.

But if business is so cumbersome, why do the locals stay?Leung says that the strong currency helps the company import raw

materials at lower costs. Conversely, Singapore’s dollar is also responsible for stalling manufacturing, preventing the local companies from conducting R&D and hindering registration processes.

“This is linked to the whole philosophy of business in Singapore— with cost comes assurance of standards and quality,” says HSA’s CEO, John Lim, who assures that the HSA does engage in dialogue across the spectrum and always seeks feedback, including from SMEs.

In order for Singapore to stay on top though, appeasement sometimes has to be selective. “Because we (HSA) are benchmarking internationally, we have to set the standards to international standards - and that in itself brings a certain cost, in terms of expertise and international connectivity,” Lim adds.

Made in Singapore Brand


Singapore report


Chugai, another leading Japanese research-based pharma company an-nounced an investment of SGD 200 million (USD 164 million) in Singapore over the next five years. The investment follows the establishment of Chugai’s second research institute in Singapore, an antibody engineering technologies lab, Chugai Pharmabody Research (CPR) this July.

does singapore have The answers?No one believes that the smörgåsbord of eastern opportunities will fix all the problems inherent within the industry. A central theme resonates: Drug devel-opment in the industry today does not work, plain and simple.

The collective agreement is that change is needed, “but what really is

changing?” asks the industry. ASLAN Pharmaceuticals’

CEO, Carl Firth says that “moving pieces around on an organizational chart is not going to help and creat-ing new acronyms to name a new business unit is not go-ing to help.” Risk is the only solution, and sometimes “that means giving up bits that we felt were a vital part of the DNA of the industry,” he says.

But who is ready? And does Asia—a playground for those looking to escape the bureaucracy and sometimes, in-transigent ways of the west—have any idea of what the DNA consists of?

One of the answers that will cer-tainly mix the double helix is the convergence of industries, primarily

medtech and pharma. “Pharma companies are

running out of ideas, their IP are expiring, they need new products/ drugs,” says Yoh-Chie Lu, Chairman of Biosen-sors, the first medical device company listed on the Sin-gapore Exchange (SGX). “In these days we have to think outside of the box and not just say all we need is drugs, but

also deliver them in better and more ef-fective ways.”

But radical alone won’t do it. Nei-ther will complacency.

“Asia won’t succeed without the rest of the globe working together,” says Mr. Kaw is director Singapore Innova-tion Center (P&G). “Interdependency will be key to drive more innovation.”

Carl Firth, CEO ASLAN

©2012 HOYA Surgical Optics. All rights reserved.

See for yourself.

Visit us at: www.HOYA.com/SurgicalOptics

Singularly Focused. Globally Powered.TM

We enjoy a different world viewAn entrepreneurial company, in diverse world markets, with emerging innovative products.

AD_HOYA HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:46 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan


Singapore report


Chugai, another leading Japanese research-based pharma company an-nounced an investment of SGD 200 million (USD 164 million) in Singapore over the next five years. The investment follows the establishment of Chugai’s second research institute in Singapore, an antibody engineering technologies lab, Chugai Pharmabody Research (CPR) this July.

does singapore have The answers?No one believes that the smörgåsbord of eastern opportunities will fix all the problems inherent within the industry. A central theme resonates: Drug devel-opment in the industry today does not work, plain and simple.

The collective agreement is that change is needed, “but what really is

changing?” asks the industry. ASLAN Pharmaceuticals’

CEO, Carl Firth says that “moving pieces around on an organizational chart is not going to help and creat-ing new acronyms to name a new business unit is not go-ing to help.” Risk is the only solution, and sometimes “that means giving up bits that we felt were a vital part of the DNA of the industry,” he says.

But who is ready? And does Asia—a playground for those looking to escape the bureaucracy and sometimes, in-transigent ways of the west—have any idea of what the DNA consists of?

One of the answers that will cer-tainly mix the double helix is the convergence of industries, primarily

medtech and pharma. “Pharma companies are

running out of ideas, their IP are expiring, they need new products/ drugs,” says Yoh-Chie Lu, Chairman of Biosen-sors, the first medical device company listed on the Sin-gapore Exchange (SGX). “In these days we have to think outside of the box and not just say all we need is drugs, but

also deliver them in better and more ef-fective ways.”

But radical alone won’t do it. Nei-ther will complacency.

“Asia won’t succeed without the rest of the globe working together,” says Mr. Kaw is director Singapore Innova-tion Center (P&G). “Interdependency will be key to drive more innovation.”

Carl Firth, CEO ASLAN

©2012 HOYA Surgical Optics. All rights reserved.

See for yourself.

Visit us at: www.HOYA.com/SurgicalOptics

Singularly Focused. Globally Powered.TM

We enjoy a different world viewAn entrepreneurial company, in diverse world markets, with emerging innovative products.

AD_HOYA HP PhexSinga_1-1.pgs 12.12.2012 20:46 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

18



This space between malleability and meticulousness, is where Singapore can play the biggest role. With its phenome-nal ability to foresee, to plan, and to ex-

ecute—forging successful partnerships, promoting interdisciplinary research, merging industries, or attracting the brightest scientific acumen—Singapore

promises to provide the stability neces-sary to uphold an exploding Asia, and, in turn, help lead the revitalization of an industry.

Apart from your generic business and contract manufac-turing, Beacons is also pushing its in-house project, the SPAH system. What sets SPAH apart?Historically, the pharma industry has been focusing on prod-ucts and it seems as if the production processes have in turn been neglected. The beauty of the SPAH system, though it is a building technology, is that it allows full innovation on the production process itself. If applied appropriately, it will result in accumulative cost saving, product market failure risk mitigation and the fast assurance in the whole lifecycle of the product, significantly impacting the business model and hence the results. Essentially, the difference between SPAH and any other system it that it has the ability to change production capacity quickly and cost effectively, whilst follow-ing all the regulatory requirements.

What business opportunities can SPAH represent for the industry? I believe that the industry shall change its mindset and not focus all of its efforts on the right molecule, but rather on understanding that first the right processes and business models need to be adopted too. Early adopters of SPAH Bea-cons technology can improve on their overall return rate & corporate performance. Expediting the launch of their mol-ecules will in turn increase the possibility of finding a block-buster, and once found, their previous launch losses will be compensated. With SPAH, the industry players can increase their chance of success, mitigate their failures, break out and lead the competition.

Interview with Joseph Lam, managing director of Beacons Pharmaceuticals

SPAH StrategyDrug Launches

Plant

Plant

Plant

Conventional

StrategyDrug Launches

and

R&D

Trials

SPAH

SPAH

SPAH

SPAH

SPAH

SPAH

AD_Beacons_HP Phex Singa_1-1_1-1.pgs 12.19.2012 15:21 ADVANSTAR_PDF/X-1a blackyellowmagentacyan

19

For exclusive ITVs and more insights, log on to

pharma.focusreports.net

20 Interview with: John C W Lim - CEO, Health Sciences Authority

INTERVIEW WITH:

John C W Lim - CEO, Health Sciences Authority

Focus Reports: HSA celebrated its 10th anni-versary in 2011. How different is the orga-nization today from when it started?JOHN C W LIM: HSA covers the regulation of health products in Singapore. However, we are quite unique because we also run the national blood service and we have an Applied Sciences Group that looks into lab-oratory testing, covering forensic services as well.

In the last ten years, important achieve-ments for the regulatory group of HSA include the strengthening of the whole reg-ulatory framework, and the modernisation of the legislation. In 2007, the Health Prod-ucts Act was enacted. The significance of this Act is that it has a fairly broad scope and gives us flexibility in terms of the subsidiary legislation. This is important because with the rapid development of the whole area of pharmaceuticals and related biotech and biological products, we need a risk-based regulatory approach rather than a one-size-fits-all regulatory system.

The Health Products Act gives us the tool to calibrate the regulation to the degree of risk of the product. While we are planning to port the categories of products from the old legislation to the new, the key ones that came under this legislation initially were medical devices and cosmetics. Now we are moving the whole area of Western Pharma-ceuticals under this Act.

We have also introduced more stream-lined routes of access into marketing author-

izations. Originally, Singapore used an abridged evaluation route, where we would wait for a pharmaceutical product to be approved in another jurisdiction and then we would look mainly at the clinical and quality data. In the last ten years we have strengthened the full evaluation route for products that have not been approved in any other jurisdiction.

In addition, we introduced a third route, a verification route. This is applicable for new drug applications and authorizations, where we have identified reference countries - the US, Australia, Europe, the UK, and Canada. As long as we can verify that the product that is coming into our market has been registered in at least two of these juris-dictions, has similar indications, and is from the same manufacturing source, we can expedite the access of this product to the market.

We then extended this approach to generics, and also for medical devices as well. This gives options to the industry in terms of what routes they are using to come into the country’s market. We then refine our pre-market authorization to the level of risk. In areas where the risk is lower, we can expedite access and track products more in the post-market domain.

Another development we have made in the last ten years is in terms of the post-market regulatory framework. Our whole pharmacovigilance (PV) system has been strengthened and now we feed into the IT

John C W Lim - CEO, HEALTH SCIENCES AUTHORITY

21

network across the public sector hospitals to pick up adverse events signals. In fact Sin-gapore is now ranked number one in terms of the number of adverse events per million inhabitants by the WHO-Uppsala Monitor-ing Centre. This does not mean we have a lot of adverse events, but it shows that the PV system allows us to pick up ADR reports fast and analyze them. Because our population is small, we still share these reports with other regulators to understand the implica-tions better.

We have a fairly robust system in terms of picking up signals early and addressing them proactively. This is particularly in the area of complementary health products that have been adulterated and have caused some significant health issues in the population.

In the area of collaboration, we have extensively cultivated international part-nerships. We have signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with key counterpart regulatory agencies around the world. As a result, we have very close links with the US FDA, Canada, Australia, China and other counterparts. We have not signed a specific pan-European agreement as yet, but we have MoUs with specific agencies within Europe, for example the UK’s Medicines and Health-care products Regulatory Agency, and the Paul-Ehrlich Institute in Germany.

We have also expanded significantly our links with the ASEAN countries.

FR: Aside from international collaboration, how has HSA positioned itself in ASEAN-related collaboration?JOHN C W LIM: The ASEAN Pharmaceutical Working Group is actually the longest stand-ing of the ASEAN working groups. It has been very successful in ensuring that all the agencies in Southeast Asia are talking to one another. In terms of information exchange,

we have moved forward and have been very effective in sharing post-market adverse event data. There is a template that is adopted which allows us to push informa-tion from one country to another very pro-actively, so we pick up signals and work on these.

Common Technical Requirements (CTR) have also been implemented, which has introduced a certain level of harmonization already. Different countries’ legal jurisdic-tions prescribe how much harmonization can be implemented immediately.

One interesting thing that came through in terms of the CTRs, is when Indonesia highlighted that some of the international stability requirements for drugs did not fully take into account the humidity condi-tions and supply chain distribution of prod-ucts in our type of environment. We were able to come together and support Indonesia in making its case, so that a sub-category was introduced to allow additional stability requirements to be recognized. It is of no use having stability requirements that are fine in a temperate country, but when you bring a product into our humid tropical environment, you may find that the whole product actually degrades.

We are continuing to progress. Those countries that are able to move ahead first can proceed to implement common require-ments and others will do so when their capacity allows. But the communication and referencing helps, because each agency can learn from sharing of best practices. n

Those countries that are able to move ahead first can proceed to implement common requirements and others will do so when their capacity allows.

22 Interview with: Swee-Yeok Chu- CEO & President, EDBI

INTERVIEW WITH:

Swee-Yeok Chu- CEO & President, EDBI

Focus Reports: EDBI is the strategic corpo-rate investment arm of the Singapore Eco-nomic Development Board (EDB) that invests in very select industry sectors among them life sciences. What is the value that biopharma companies create and how do you rate their success?SWEE-YEOK CHU: We need to look at the rea-sons the BMS Initiative was put in place in order to determine if and how successful the BMS Initiative was.

Prior to 2000, Singapore was primarily a location for Active Pharmaceutical Ingre-dient (API) manufacturing. For the BMS industry to be sustainable, it needed to be more than one of the best global locations (along with Puerto Rico and Ireland) for manufacturing. We needed to go up the value chain and develop BMS R&D capa-bilities in Singapore. Bio*One’s role was to catalyze and support the initiative of build-ing private R&D capabilities.

In the early years, Singapore only had a couple of BMS research institutes. The first was the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biol-ogy (IMCB) that was set up in 1989. It was only in 2000, under the BMS Initiative, that a coherent and holistic approach to build-ing the pillars required to support R&D was put in place. Hence, the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Bio-Processing Technol-ogy Institute (BTI) and Institute of Bioen-gineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) were founded.

To build BMS capabilities in Singapore, many “firsts” were brought about through Bio*One’s investments. For example, we set

up S*BIO, the first private R&D company in Singapore, in a joint venture with Chi-ron, then one of the largest biotechnology companies in the US (Chiron was later acquired by Novartis). We spun off the first natural product research company, Mer-lion. We then went on to set up the first vaccine company in Singapore, Singvax, which we then merged with Inviragen. We also set up Maccine, the first preclinical company in Singapore, and also Fluidigm, the first manufacturer for Integrated Flu-idic Circuits (IFC).

Bio*One has achieved many significant “firsts”, and built substantial developmen-tal capabilities in the BMS value chain. The capabilities built through these companies are now entrenched in local industry.

FR: How time consuming is setting up all of these foundations?SWEE-YEOK CHU: Many people do not under-stand how long it takes to build a BMS industry. I am often asked, “Is the policy successful, or is the BMS Initiative success-ful?” This is not an industry for the faint-hearted, but one that requires a very long-term perspective. The BMS Initiative was started only 12 years ago, and the industry is beginning to take off. “Success” can be better measured 20-30 years down the road, not 10. Massachusetts, a BMS hub for example, recorded its first collaborative ini-tiative in 1961. The first company there that was set up was Biogen, 17 years later. So clearly, it takes a long time. Moreover, Singapore is a city-state, and hence a better

Swee-Yeok Chu- CEO & President, EDBI

23

comparison might be with other cities, and not other countries.

Essentially, this is an industry that has a very long gestation period. Patience is nec-essary because it takes time to build capa-bilities and infrastructure. We are getting there, but it is a long journey. We must cap-italize on this momentum and continue to forge ahead.

FR: What are the criteria to invest in a com-pany?SWEE-YEOK CHU: Having catalyzed and built capabilities in the private sector R&D, Bio*One now focuses on later stage compa-nies with products. For example, medical device companies that are looking to expand into Asian markets. EDBI and Bio*One are active investors who work very closely with our portfolio companies to help them navi-gate in Asia- from dealing with cultural dif-ferences, introducing them to the correct decision makers, to raising funds when they need to. It is in our DNA to work with other investors. We have built a very strong base of co-investors through our networks around the world.

Many companies approach EDBI because we are a neutral, long-term strategic inves-tor. We are aligned with their plans to grow in Asia and globally.

FR: As an investor in Singapore, what are going to be the main challenges in the future to maintain growth?SWEE-YEOK CHU: Many local investors’ focus on revenue growth. The BMS sector requires an investor to assess companies based on their potential - something that savvy inves-tors are able to do. Being able to appreciate this would enable promising companies to be sold for multiple times their investment cost even before their products have been

brought to market.Generally, local investors are more con-

cerned with short-term gains and are less prepared to invest in BMS with its long investment horizon. This makes it difficult to find like minded investors in Singapore with the ability to hold on to long term investments.

Historically, when portfolio companies needed to raise funds, they would look to the US and Europe. It is therefore important for Bio*One to continue building partner-ships and strong alignment in these mar-kets, as well as with our collaborators and partners around the world.

The Singapore investor has become increasingly savvy with BMS investments over the years, and there are now local inves-tors who are more prepared to co-invest with us.

FR: Since a majority of fund raising is now in Europe and America, do you think that the perception of Asian investors on further investing in Life Sciences will change? SWEE-YEOK CHU: Yes, it will. With the down-turn, we have already seen US companies experience difficulty raising money from US funds. They often come to Bio*One/EDBI, very keen for us to invest in them, and lead the round of fund raising for them.

From a company financing perspective, it is important to have wide networks of con-tacts and potential investors. This would enable the company to approach the right decision makers when the need arises. How-ever, it is usually difficult for a young com-pany to build that wide network, and this is where we come in to help to link our compa-nies with potential investors worldwide.

Looking at our portfolio, you would immediately notice that our companies have a global base of credible investors. n

24 Interview with: Dr. Benjamin Seet - Executive Director, A*STAR - Biomedical Research Council

INTERVIEW WITH:

Benjamin Seet - Executive Director, A*STAR - Biomedical Research Council

Focus Reports: What role has A* STAR played in building Singapore’s renowned capabili-ties?DR. BENJAMIN SEET: A decade ago the biomed-ical industry in Singapore was relatively modest and there was little research activi-ties outside of the universities. However, in the last ten years the biomedical sector has developed significantly. For the first 5 years from 2001 to 2005, we focused on two aspects: building infrastructure and attract-ing good scientists to Singapore. With regard to infrastructure, we have built lab-oratories and institutes to conduct interna-tionally competitive research. As for attract-ing scientists, we recruited talent from outside our borders, while at the same time, training the next generation of Singapore scientists.

The focus for the subsequent five years, from 2006 to 2010, was in increasing the capabilities of hospitals and universities to conduct translational clinical research. For example, flagship programs have been funded to support research in specific dis-ease themes such as gastric cancer and den-gue. Furthermore, there was emphasis on building research infrastructure in hospi-tals and in training clinician scientists. This is a long-term investment as it generally takes 15 years to train a clinician scientist as they need to obtain their medical degree and PhD, followed by speciality training.

We have entered the third phase, from

2011 to 2015, where the focus is on working with industry for economic outcomes.

One consistent theme across the devel-opment of Biopolis is the focus on scientific talent. While we have been successful in attracting scientists from around the world to work here - more than half of our scien-tists come from as many as 60 countries, we cannot build our research ecosystem on for-eign talent alone. For that reason, there has been a concerted effort to train young Sin-gaporeans in science. We have been award-ing scholarships to Singaporeans right out of high school, and sending them to some of the best universities across the world. Today, we now have more than 1,100 young scientists in the talent pipeline who will eventually be deployed across Singapore.

FR: Now that the country is in the third phase of its BMS initiative, do you believe that Sin-gapore has reached its ambition to be the Biopolis of Asia? DR. BENJAMIN SEET: While we have our suc-cesses, there are still challenges we have to face. The whole process of pharmaceutical development is evolving. Many large phar-maceutical companies are pushing towards open innovation, leveraging on public sec-tor research rather than developing every-thing in-house. This provides opportunities for collaboration.

At the same time, Singapore needs to remain competitive in the face of develop-

Dr. Benjamin Seet - Executive Director, A*STAR - BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

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ing biomedical clusters in Japan, South Korea, China and India. Our population is a mere 5.2 million people, hence, we lack the domestic market of these larger coun-tries. To be successful, we need to be com-petitive internationally.

In a recent speech, honourable Prime Minis-ter Lee mentioned how Singapore cannot afford to stand still but instead keep pace with a rising China and India. Where do you think Singapore stands in terms of science and what is next?DR. BENJAMIN SEET: We produce world-class science. As a small country, our scientific output is small compared to Japan or China. However, if we look at the Nature Publish-ing Index that assesses different countries by how they perform in terms of publica-tions - Singapore is number five in the Asia Pacific. When we normalise this ranking in terms of the number of high impact publi-cations per scientists, we are number one.

For us to be competitive, we need to be differentiated. We need to offer companies a good enough reason to shift their R&D operations to Singapore.

Stratified medicine is one example. The way that cancer has been treated in the past was based on population data derived from clinical studies and observation, rather than from each individual’s biodata. An interesting change is that technology has become affordable, which allows us to obtain a lot of information at relatively low cost - this includes genomic sequencing and molecular studies. This allows us to identify biomarkers to personalize healthcare, where treatment decisions are tailored according to an individual patient’s genetic or other information. In the context of Sin-gapore, we are well poised to conduct research in diseases that primarily affect

Asians, for example gastric or hepatocellu-lar cancer, or that present differently in Asians, for example obesity. We cannot only study differences between Asian and other populations, but variations between differ-ent Asian races. This provides for more tar-geted therapy, while at the same time, allows pharmaceutical companies to strat-ify and differentiate their products for Asian populations.

Beyond pharma, other industries are also looking towards mechanistic biology to differentiate their products for different populations. Large international corpora-tions in the nutrition and food industry such as Nestle and Abbot have begun to look at how to use biological tools to identify seg-ments of the population that can benefit from nutritional intervention for diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cognitive decline in aging. Ultimately, this could pres-ent an alternative approach towards pre-venting cancer and chronic diseases.

Another area is the personal care indus-try. For instance, Procter & Gamble (P&G) will be opening its new innovation centre in Singapore. The reason is that we provide a single location to study Asian skin, par-ticularly in the tropical climate, allowing such companies to develop products for growing Asian markets. By establishing this centre within Biopolis, P&G also has ready access to the scientific capabilities, knowl-edge leadership and research support ser-vices here.

To sum up, we have to identify niche areas to remain differentiated and compet-itive in pharmbio, while at the same time, expand our horizons to find new opportu-nities in other industry sectors. The under-lying theme has to be a strong foundation in basic science that could be translated into clinical or industrial applications. n

26 Interview with: Fabio Landazabal – Senior VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific, GlaxoSmithKline

INTERVIEW WITH:

Fabio Landazabal – Senior VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific, GlaxoSmithKline

Focus Reports: The company’s current corpo-rate strategy includes a major focus on the Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific (EMAP) region. Concretely, what are the expecta-tions and the main objectives for the Asia Pacific region?FABIO LANDAZABAL: GSK Asia Pacific is com-posed of: North East Asia, South East Asia and South Pacific (this includes countries from Taiwan to Australia). Therefore, in order to operate within such a diverse area we have divided our operations into three main clusters: the mature or developed mar-kets, which includes New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan; the hybrid market, which cor-responds to the markets where we find a mixture of public and private segments (meaning there is both reimbursement and ‘out-of-pocket’ payment, countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the Phil-ippines. The Philippines, for instance, is a very good example of our hybrid market since it has a large population with a consid-erable percent of out-of-pocket market, but where a strong public market is starting to develop since President Aquino has priori-tized in ensuring transparency and improv-ing the countries healthcare system. Conse-quently, they are investing heavily in healthcare and vaccines. Lastly, our emerg-ing markets cluster includes the countries that are growing in high double digits like Vietnam and Indonesia.

As each region is distinct and has differ-

ent needs, we have a flexible strategy for each one of the clusters and we support all of them from our offices in Singapore.

Since we recognize this inherent diver-sity and tailor our strategies accordingly, we bring our broad GSK portfolio to every mar-ket in order to be successful. For example, in the mature markets we are increasingly driving the innovative brands and our new assets, since our new portfolio plays a major role in these types of markets. While the dynamics in the emerging markets are such that through nurturing our established brands and bringing access to the popula-tion with a flexible pricing strategy, we can make our products as affordable as possible in order to reach the highest number of patients.

FR: Following your comments regarding the specific needs of every market determining the strategies and the types of drugs offered- Is increasing the vaccine business then a pri-ority for GSK? FABIO LANDAZABAL: For us it is very important to increase the growth of our vaccine busi-ness. As a diversified global healthcare com-pany, vaccines is one of our key areas of focus.

In our vaccines business we are the mar-ket leaders in the mature markets. In those markets the immunization calendars are very advanced and they include most of the new antigens. We are very proud to be a

Fabio Landazabal – Senior VP & Area Director, ASIA PACIFIC, GLAXOSMITHKLINE

27

major vaccine supplier in New Zealand, Aus-tralia and Taiwan. Certainly this is a busi-ness that we will continue to grow and its future will be dependent in part by our pipe-line.

For our hybrid markets we are seeing that governments are starting to prioritize immunization. For example, the Philippines have already introduced the rotavirus vac-cine, and they are looking to introduce a pneumococcal vaccine. Other examples include Malaysia driving cervical cancer pre-vention by extending their immunization program to include girls aged 18 and 19 years. There is a general trend where govern-ments are showing a lot of interest of invest-ing in vaccination in order to meet their “Millennium Development Goals” in these hybrid markets.

As for the emerging markets, the private market is growing quickly, but we need to drive improved access to vaccines. This is why we are working with organizations like the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immu-nization (GAVI) in order to try to improve access to vaccines in markets like Vietnam. Without doubt, access to vaccines is some-thing we need to increase in our emerging markets, but today our core business there is the private market which continues to grow.

FR: What will be the main challenges in meet-ing the great ambitions GSK has for the AP region? Would launching the right products and attracting and developing talent present challenges for GSK? FABIO LANDAZABAL: Certainly a critical factor in our future success is identifying and developing the right talent for Asia. Achiev-ing it won’t be easy since what we are looking to develop, in the long term, is what we call “Glocal” leaders - essentially Asian leaders

with local knowledge but a global outlook. These new leaders will need to have the nec-essary capabilities to translate our global strategy into local implementation and exe-cution plans that make sense in the local markets in which they operate.

Developing those leaders that can share the global values of the organization and translate them in the local context and make them relevant is the recipe for success. Therefore, we are investing very heavily to make that happen. For example, we have established programs with leading universi-ties throughout the region, in order for grad-uates to become more familiar with GSK as a company.

At management level we have been investing very heavily into providing inter-national experience to our Asian talent so that they can start thinking more globally. We send top Asian talent to leading business schools where they get exposure to business, so when they come back they have a global mindset and an excellent academic back-ground to drive and implement GSK’s global strategy.

Besides talent, another critical element for our success is our late-stage pipeline. Over the next 24 months we have the poten-tial to launch 8 new assets: we must ensure these launches are successful.

In particular our respiratory portfolio and pipeline remains very important for us. n

Without doubt, access to vaccines is something we need to increase in our emerging markets, but today our core business there is the private market which continues to grow.

28 Interview with: David Utama - President & CEO, GE Healthcare - ASEAN

INTERVIEW WITH:

David Utama - President & CEO, GE Healthcare - ASEAN

Focus Reports: How is GE’s approach to healthcare unique?DAVID UTAMA: Overall, from a GE stand-point, “healthymagination” is how we approach healthcare. The three pillars of healthymagination are improving “access,” “quality” and “affordability” and it truly applies to the basic needs of healthcare challenges.

For example, with access - if we can improve access by about 15% every year, we could reach out to 100 million more people. GE Healthcare is participating heavily in the global need, especially in this region. We make our product to be more accessible. For example, Vscan is a scanning device based on ultrasound tech-nology. It is literally the size of a mobile phone and is battery operated. In the past, if people needed to have a scan, they had to go to a facility or travel a long time to get it done. One of the challenges in South-east Asia is that, despite all the cities, 45% of people live in rural areas. So reaching the people will always be a challenge. Vscan is one of the

healthymagination products that will help provide access. You can do home vis-its and you can go to rural sites.

Our target is to come up with about 100 healthymagination products in those three categories: affordability, quality and access. Out of the 100, healthymagination is close to about 50 products already launched.

Also, all of our products are evaluated

by an independent third party, Oxford Analytica. Essentially, Oxford Analytica has about 1,000 PhDs, and every product that is certified as healthymagination has to be validated, which ensure that they meet the requirements of the three pillars.

FR: The industry echoes that “market appropriate products” are integral for suc-cess in Asia’s emerging markets. How are GE products “market appropriate?”DAVID UTAMA: GE invested about $6 billion USD into healthymagination, of which $3 billion was contributed to R&D. For sure, we will continue to come up with products that meet the need. Being a GE employee, I have the opportunity to witness that healthymagination is really a global pro-gram that GE funds and is dedicated to help solving the world’s problems.

Our products are really developed to address the local needs and the local mar-ket. Vscan was launched in September in the Indonesian language. We also have plans to develop the local version in the Philippines as well as in Vietnam.

The question today is how we can be partners, in the public or the private sector, in order to build back the healthcare industry.

David Utama - President & CEO, GE HEALTHCARE - ASEAN

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FR: GE has come out with a very innovative approach on how to tackle the emerging markets, not only with products, but also with financial mechanisms like the one recently launched in Indonesia. How does this work?DAVID UTAMA: Hospitals or clinics in rural areas do not really have a budget, but the big healthcare institutions may have a budget to buy. In the rural setting, with small clinics or even private doctors, sometimes their challenge is purchasing equipment.

When we looked into this rural seg-ment and how we could help, as part of healthymagination and providing access, we found a partner - BNI 46, a local Indo-nesian government bank - that has the same view, values and vision as GE in try-ing to improve the healthcare sector. We are grateful because BNI 46 is one of the largest public banks in Indonesia and they have more than a thousand branches throughout the country. What we have organized with them is a credit card with a certain credit limit that will be issued to doctors or healthcare practitioners. BNI will do the qualification. The purpose of this financial structure is for the individ-ual that is given the credit card to be able to purchase GE products.

Normally the challenge for healthcare practitioners is not cash flow, because they have a good base of operations. The chal-lenge is buying for the first time. So we worked with BNI to see if they want to engage in certain terms, such as a one-year purchase. They can do an installment program over the year where we absorb the interest. Then if they want to go beyond one year, there is a good scheme with very low interest.

FR: How does GE supplement its products?DAVID UTAMA: We help with the planning, with building the infrastructure, with designs and we help with certain involve-ment to the point of, for example, financ-ing.

GE, in the healthcare sector, is one of the few global companies that have a very complete portfolio. We have medical equipment, from diagnostic imaging, to devices like life care solutions, and ultra-sound. We have the full portfolio of a healthcare company, and we also have life sciences and medical diagnostics.

The question today is how we can be partners, in the public or the private sec-tor, in order to build back the healthcare industry. We truly spend a lot of time in building our operating capability, through stable operations and through the invest-ments that we are making.

GE is a great company that will always develop good products. That is because our commitment to R&D is so big on a yearly basis that we will always develop prod-ucts, which are meeting the needs. When it comes to customer satisfaction in the region, it is about how we provide service. Service cannot be owned by headquarters. Service is a local operation. Service is the ability of the organization to react and respond and to guarantee that the after-sales service - the maintenance and up-time of the equipment, the replacement of spare parts - has to be at the level of customer expectation or better. n

One of the challenges in Southeast Asia is that, despite all the cities, 45% of people live in rural areas.

30 Interview with: Augusto Muench - Regional Director, South East Asia & Managing Director, Singapore Boehringer Ingelheim

INTERVIEW WITH:

Augusto Muench - Regional Director, South East Asia & Managing Director, Singapore Boehringer Ingelheim

Focus Reports: What is the presence of Boeh-ringer Ingelheim (BI) in Southeast Asia? AUGUSTO MUENCH: In 2009, Boehringer Ingel-heim decided to establish a regional operat-ing unit for its human pharmaceutical divi-sion (prescription and OTC products) in Southeast Asia that would be managed from Singapore. This business unit was des-ignated to oversee of all the South East Asian region plus Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Our presence in the country extends beyond that, since we previously had some regional offices in Singapore, such as the medical regional office that did R&D, and a regulatory and medical affairs office, as well as all the IT and IS support for our AAA region.

FR: What is the potential that BI sees in this region? AUGUSTO MUENCH: Southeast Asia being such a diverse region has different potentials in different markets. Therefore, in the last 2.5 years we have worked, not only in establish-ing the proper structures to support all the countries, but also in establishing individ-ual plans for each country that would allow us to have profitable growth throughout the whole region, but most importantly, to deliver our products to all patients in need in Southeast Asia.

We recognized that Southeast Asia is an area that can bring a lot to the company and the new developments that we have in our pipeline, like the diabetes franchise, which is particularly important for this region.

Indeed, focusing particularly on diabe-tes, BI announced a long-term global alli-ance with Eli Lilly. Last year we launched the first compound, a DPP4 inhibitor called Trajenta, as part of that alliance. Further-more, we have a SDL2 compound, as well as two kinds of insulin coming from Lilly’s pipeline, which are scheduled to be launched soon.

FR: BI’s financial results of the first half of the year reported total sales of €7.1 billion sales, an increase of 6.8% compared with the previous year. In the Asia/Australasia/Africa region, the pharmaceutical company was able to increase its revenues by 9.2% to over €1.7 billion. What was the role that Southeast Asia played in this growth? AUGUSTO MUENCH: Southeast Asia, this year to date, is showing a growth of approxi-mately 15-16 percent. Reviewing BI’s global results, the company growth has been very healthy as was the one associated with emerging markets. On this note, Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing regions

Augusto Muench - Regional Director, SOUTH EAST ASIA & MANAGING DIRECTOR, SINGAPORE BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM

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in the world for us and our expectation is that it will continue growing in the coming years.

FR: Where do you expect BI’s continue growth to come from- innovations or exist-ing products?AUGUSTO MUENCH: Our expectation is that it will come from a mixture of both.

The relevance of all companies’ mature portfolio in the emerging markets is huge. Of course, it is important to focus on the new launches and it is important to bring innovations to all patients, but there are still a lot of patients that are benefitting from the old portfolio.

For example, Micardis and Spiriva, two of our key products that have been in the market for over a decade, have a tremen-dous prescence in Southeast Asia. Both products are growing on a yearly basis, partly becuase of the line extensions of these two products, but also because of the enormous amount of scientific data avail-able on both of them, that helps us gain trust both with Doctors and Patients for these two brands.

The mature portfolio of products is sup-porting BI’s growth and this gives us the opportunity to also have proper launches of new molecules to bring innovative prod-ucts to these markets.

Apart from our diabetes franchise, we are also venturing into oncology. For this therapeutic area, we are intending to bring targeted therapy for Non Small Cell Lung Cancer to South East Asia. We are planning to start in Taiwan towards the end of 2013, and move from there onwards.

Lastly, we also have some early research on Hepatitis C. So there is a lot of innova-tion coming pretty soon and we believe that BI’s own research products from our pipe-

line, plus the current portfolio will be driv-ing growth.

FR: What is going to be your biggest chal-lenge in achieving further growth and con-solidating your presence in SEA?AUGUSTO MUENCH: There are several chal-lenges, the first of course being talent. Back in 2009, BI established talent as one of the key elements needed in order to fulfill the growth that we were expecting. As a result, talent management along with succession planning became crucial.

Therefore, training, in terms of strategic leadership is very important. In addition, fostering local talent is key for me. Ever since I came to Southeast Asia, local talent has been one of my, not only business objec-tives, but also personal objectives. It is very important to foster and develop local tal-ent, since the presence of Asians in our global BI community is not huge (it mostly comes from China and Japan). Until today, the amount of talent coming from South-east Asia is not big and after being here for a while, I realized there is a lot of talent in this region that has yet to be utilized. Therefore, one of my objectives is to develop talent and enable further relevance within our BI international environment.

So yes, talent will be a key challenge to overcome in order to meet our ambitions, but I do not think it will be the only one. n

We recognized that Southeast Asia is an area that can bring a lot to the company and the new developments that we have in our pipeline, like the diabetes franchise, which is particularly important for this region.

32 Interview with: Mark Smedley - President Asia-Pacific & Japan, Life Technologies

INTERVIEW WITH:

Mark Smedley - President Asia-Pacific & Japan, Life Technologies

Focus Reports: The merger with Invitrogen-Applied Biosystems in 2008 was a big mile-stone for the company. As one of the lead-ers of this integration, can you please explain how this merger helped transform Life Technologies into the company it is today?MARK SMEDLEY: The merger had an impact both internally and externally. Regarding the internal perspective, it certainly expanded our portfolio, since joining a leading instrument company and a lead-ing consumables company allowed us to build up a company that can bring full solutions to our customers.

Today, together as Life Technologies, we can actually offer an entire workflow solution. In doing so we offer what we call the best growth restoring, for anybody looking for biotech tools.

As for the external advantages, having become a large company that is more effective allows us to save costs. Hence, we are able to invest more in R&D and as a consequence we can drive innovation faster and provide it to our customers. At the same time, being a larger organization enables us to have more breadth and cov-erage, which gives us the ability to have more support and sales people that can get into more customers’ labs and offer them customized solutions for the science they are doing.

FR: What has been the main focus of your current business? MARK SMEDLEY: We believe tools are what fundamentally drive innovation. Coper-nicus and Galileo could be used as an his-torical example. In the mid 1500s Coper-nicus posed that the Earth was not the center of the universe and that it revolved around the sun. It was not until the mid 1600s, when Galileo perfected the tele-scope and actually proved that the Earth went around the Sun. So I believe the focus is scientific discovery in a tool, which is what we do.

The example I would use for Life Tech-nologies is the Human Genome Project where they spent $3 billion USD and years to map an entire genome. It was kind of a Copernicus-like scenario. At that point, we understood that we could do amazing things once we has access to everyone’s genome. Ten years later we came out with tools that in two hours and for $1,000 USD could do just that. This reduction of time and money is what we call “democ-ratizing science” and we are very excited to be able to do it.

We believe tools are what fundamentally drive innovation.

Mark Smedley - President Asia-Pacific & Japan, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES

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FR: Singapore is the only country outside of the US where Life Technologies manu-factures instruments. Does it make sense to manufacture in one of the most expen-sive countries in the world? MARK SMEDLEY: Cost is only part of the equation. We care a lot about efficiency and our aim is to maximize the level of invention and innovation, rather than minimize cost. After establishing the Cen-ter of Excellence here in Singapore, we found that there are many benefits-we have great access to talent, for example. Therefore, the combination of efficiency, high performance professionals and good quality technicians make us cost-effective compared to just about anywhere else in the world.

FR: Does Life Technologies offer a corporate value proposition?MARK SMEDLEY: Our core mission is to feed, fuel and heal the world. In examining the advances in sustainable energy, we see that it is all about bio-fuels since Solar has reached its peak. How to get to bio-fuels? By demanding engineer mechanisms. How to do that? By using our tools.

In terms of healing- if you look at med-ical sciences and its customers, as they do their research and get an understanding of how life works, whether or not it is sequencing, they will be using our tools. We are not going to directly heal the world this way, but we will provide the tools that will enable others to heal.

In terms of feeding, the reality is that it is impossible to feed six billion people in Asia in ten years time with natural selection. Therefore, unless we find a way to create rice crops that are drought-resistant, insect-resistant, and disease-resistant there will be food deficits. That

is why agricultural companies worldwide use our products to figure out how to develop strains that are safe.

As one of the top 100 sustainable com-panies in the world, we are a great com-pany to do business with.

FR: As a company that works with different industries, how important is the medical science industry and what are the future opportunities you see in this sector?MARK SMEDLEY: Currently, from a research perspective, we do a lot of business with companies in medical sciences. However, as we move forward we think that the big-gest area of growth will be to work with them on a more applied basis, which would translate into clinical diagnostics and companion diagnostics. We think that in a couple of years most of the drugs will come with a companion diagnostic and every infectious disease will be accompa-nied with one as well.

We will also get stronger in pharma economics, since today we see that com-panies in that niche are coming to us because we are a one-stop shop that can provide all the solutions they need to ena-ble their companion diagnostic.

People are more educated about their own health these days and doctors want to be much more targeted about why, how and what they are prescribing, not only from a cost perspective but also from an effectiveness perspective. Given these dynamics, we imagine a future where we could democratize sequencing, in which everyone can go and get their DNA code read for $500 and then be able to walk into the doctor’s office with a thumb drive and code. However this will require more time since we don’t see it happing in the next ten years. n

34 Interview with: Yoh-Chie Lu - Executive Chairman, Biosensors International Group

INTERVIEW WITH:

Yoh-Chie Lu - Executive Chairman, Biosensors International Group

Focus Reports: Can you please briefly com-ment on the innovative drugs/products that Biosensors have developed? We have to come out with a different game plan from all the others who are bigger than us, we have to be unique and that equates to innovation. In our case, we chose to take a risk to develop BioMatrix Flex - our own drug-eluting stent that is proprietary to us - which we own 100 per-cent of and developed in-house.

With our products, we decided to take an extra risk by choosing a biodegradable polymer that is normally known for its mechanism to control-release the drug. Different from durable polymers, biode-gradable polymers will disappear over time. Durable polymers by nature are not supposed to go away, which means a patient implanted with a durable polymer DES will have a polymer which does not need to be there after the drug is com-pletely released. With durable polymers you reap benefits in the beginning but it ends up a ticking time bomb. Whereas Bio-sensors’ biodegradable polymer will co-release as the drug is eluted.

When we started doing this people would ask how we could do such things since it was dangerous, but after years of studies, we managed to bring the our bio-degradable polymer drug-eluting stent back to its original bare metal form with-

out leaving any other substance or mate-rial in the body.

To date, four years of clinical results comparing our BioMatrix Flex DES to J&J’s Cypher Select (which is coated with durable polymer) shows improved long-term clinical outcomes for our stent.

Our clinical studies are proving that our product is spectacular while, as you know, J&J’s DES, Cypher Select, is now out of the business. We are very proud of the development that we have had with BioMatrix Flex because certainly we are the first company that challenged and defeated a huge company.

Moreover, the LEADERS trial we are conducting is very refreshing since we did what we called a “real world, all comers” study, meaning we didn’t discriminate against any patients; we received anyone that came to the clinic. We enrolled 1,707

We have to come out with a different game plan from all the others who are bigger than us, we have to be unique and that equates to innovation.

Yoh-Chie Lu - Executive Chairman, BIOSENSORS INTERNATIONAL GROUP

35

patients across 10 centers throughout Europe. The study is so innovative that it was been mentioned twice in ‘The Lancet’.

We knew that pursuing BioMatrix Flex could be risky, but we had to take the chance. We believed in our technology and on making a difference and now we are proving that people who receive our stent have less chance of dying. This is where innovation comes in and makes a differ-ence but it is a high risk. We are thrilled to have done this new approach with bio-degradable polymers since we can save lives whilst making our company success-ful.

FR: Earlier this March (2012) you announced an investment of around SGD $82.2 million to develop a new manufac-turing, R&D innovation center and opera-tions headquarter in Singapore. Why are you still investing in this country? If you are purely driven by low costs there is always a different place to go- Vietnam, Myanmar, etc. In our case we are dealing with medical devices and quality is our number one commitment and concern. Singapore is the best place for us to man-ufacture our products because it offers quality and we are sure that all of our products will be produced in a safe and secure way.

As mentioned, our priority is quality and being safe and secure, cost is not our main driver. Today we are very fortunate that our sales margin is very good, so we are in a position of rather than saving money (maybe this time will come), we develop new products and improve them. We sell quality.

Coming back to our investment, we had the choice to do it here or in China. We decided to do so in Singapore because

China is not as cheap as people tend to think and most of all Singapore offers great tax incentives and the government always tries to encourage the companies. The more you spend, the more they try to motivate you. This creates a win-win situ-ation for Singapore and a company like ours; therefore we are very glad to con-tinue investing here.

This company is your baby, where will you like to see it what do you think are the new opportunities to explore? This is the son I never had (I have 3 daughters) and I treat my company as my son. You can know in an instant that we are very good, but there is no guarantee that tomorrow is going to be as good as today therefore we need to capitalize on what we have built, we have to be smart about the money we make, the brand we have cre-ated, and we have to be smart about the customer loyalty that we have built since you can never take it for granted.

As for the opportunities, we have meaningful ones to come: we have a drug that should be distributed for other appli-cations as well. We have a market, USA, that we haven’t even entered. We are introducing a new product that is more exciting than the one we already have and we have people that have to take over instead of me. The outlook is that we have many opportunities and challenges ahead but that we are ready to tackle them. n

We are thrilled to have done this new approach with biodegradable polymers since we can save lives whilst making our company successful.

36 Interview with: Thomas Dunlap - President and CEO, HOYA Surgical Optics

INTERVIEW WITH:

Thomas Dunlap - President and CEO, HOYA Surgical Optics

Focus Reports: Please give us an overview of HOYA Surgical Optics and its operations? THOMAS DUNLAP: HOYA Surgical Optics is a global manufacturer of intraocular lenses (IOLs) -

Precision Optics is a core competency. Our parent company, HOYA Corporation, is the leading supplier of innovative and indispensible high-tech products based on advanced optics technologies. We leverage the power of their 70 years of global exper-tise in eyeglasses, contact lenses, and elec-tro-optics for the computer industry in everything we do.

As a Japan centric company from the start, we realized a number of years ago the need to become a global organization and to expand our footprint. We expanded in Europe, particularly Western Europe, and then we expanded in the Asia Pacific Region countries. As part of that expan-sion and changes in the global business, we moved our manufacturing operations here to Singapore nine years ago.

In 2009, we began our business opera-tions in the USA. Today, we have four regional commercial offices in Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore, and Los Angeles. We chose these locations because of their close proximities to our customers in those geographies.

In April of 2011, as part of our Global Optimization Plan, we moved our head-

quarters to Singapore with the aim to expand our footprint well outside of Japan and become a more significant ophthalmic device player.

This year, HOYA Surgical Optics is cel-ebrating our 25th Anniversary. We are very proud of our record of innovation in optics and customer care and excited about the prospects for future growth and success.

FR: The company has been a leading IOL manufacturer for many years, but is still a newcomer to many markets around the world. Is it a challenge or an opportunity to be the new kid on the block? THOMAS DUNLAP: It is extremely challeng-ing when the new kid on the block is try-ing to slug it out with three big boys and the three big boys have a huge percentage of the global market. However, we are growing rapidly; our revenue growth this past fiscal year was in the double digits, a pace of 3 to 5 times the global market growth.

We continue to grow because we stay very focused in key markets and when we decide to enter into a new market we are always very committed to it. We are not trying to appease every market, but rather strategically plan in terms of what we can do and where we can add the greatest value for our customers and their patients.

Thomas Dunlap - PRESIDENT AND CEO, HOYA SURGICAL OPTICS

37

FR: In terms of Singapore, the company has had a presence here since 2003 with its manufac-turing facility and then last year HOYA Surgi-cal Optics announced the opening of its new global headquarters in Singapore. Why was this decision taken and why Singapore? THOMAS DUNLAP: We always look for the right strategic location and the right talent.

Our goal with the Global Optimization Plan was to co-locate our headquarters near manufacturing, expand the working relation-ships we already had with the Singapore Eco-nomic Development Board (EDB), and have a good geographic position to Asia’s emerging markets, especially India and China, which are going to provide the largest growth in the ophthalmic sector over the next decade.

Moreover, establishing our global head-quarters in Singapore enabled us to become a local company in the region in some respects. Our presence here is very strategic. We have an incredibly good relationship with the EDB, there is great research done here, and the cli-nicians in Singapore are highly respected around the world. Therefore, it was the perfect location.

FR: Looking into the future what can we expect to see from HOYA Surgical Optics in Singa-pore? THOMAS DUNLAP: We will continue our commit-ment to Singapore. We will take a very strong position in the global market place, since we are aiming to be positioned amongst the top two companies in our core intraocular lens business.

We will continue to innovate new IOL insertion systems. We are the leaders with preloaded IOL technology and we must main-tain that position. Our insertion systems are the best in the industry. Unlike the IOLs from many of the major competitors, HOYA’s IOLs come fully preloaded. This means that our

lenses are contained within a sterile package. All the way from the manufacturing facility until they are inserted into the patient’s eye.

On the other hand, most likely you will see us involved with some other technologies out-side of IOLs, Retina, Cornea and Glaucoma devices.

FR: Following you comments regarding posi-tioning HOYA Surgical Optics in the top two or three companies, what will be the main chal-lenges in meeting this ambition? THOMAS DUNLAP: The risk is that of the 21 mil-lion cataract procedures that are done glob-ally, the vast majority of procedures are per-formed on senior citizens and most of the governments reimburse for cataract surgery. When reimbursement comes down, prices come down and depending on the market, it could have a downturn on business. In the USA for example, many surgeries are per-formed in the surgeon’s own ambulatory cen-ters and not in the hospital. Therefore, as reimbursement comes down, the surgeons who own these centers need to look for effi-ciencies. Consequently, prices become more sensitive, taking profitability out of the entire value chain.

In this perspective, I would say that reim-bursement changes have become one of the biggest challenges in the cataract business. Therefore, we have to diversify our business which is a very important part of our long term strategy. n

We are not trying to appease every market, but rather strategically plan in terms of what we can do and where we can add the greatest value for our customers and their patients.

38 Interview with: Dr. John R. Thornback - Chief Executive Officer, Dx assays

INTERVIEW WITH:

John R. Thornback - Chief Executive Officer, Dx assays

Focus Reports: What services does Dx assays offer at the moment?DR. JOHN R. THORNBACK: Dx assays’ business model revolves around providing contract services to other diagnostic, pharmaceuti-cal and biotech companies. We focus on molecular diagnostics and that is either pathogen detection diagnostics or compan-ion diagnostics. We have a strong expertise in the whole process from start to finish for molecular diagnostics. We can take a project from the start. A company can come to us and say “We want an assay for this pathogen,” and we will develop it the whole way through to all the verification and val-idation and deliver that package to the standards, which they can submit to a reg-ulatory authority. Typically that will take anything from 6 to 18 months. Some com-plex tests can take up to two years.

On the other hand, we can also do a pro-ject, which we just did for a large multi-national, where they wanted to look at a sample matrix, in this case a different swab and us to validate for CE marking. So we can do that, and that may take us a month or two.

We are very flexible and we have experi-ence in doing over 90 different projects in five years for a number of different compa-nies as well as projects for hospitals.

Our business model is unusual in that we do not to take long-term royalties, and instead we just do it as a fee-for-service. As a result, it is very attractive for smaller bio-technology companies. Also we recently

launched the same approach for pharma-ceutical companies who want companion diagnostics. This has generated a lot of favourable comments. We will develop the assays for them and we will give them the assay. They do not have to worry about pay-ing us for many years. If they go to a lot of other companies they will want royalties for developing the assays. We purely work on a fee-for-service basis. As we have noted before, this can be anything from one month to a one or two year project.

We are also platform-neutral, so we are not tied to one diagnostic platform. In our laboratories, we have four or five different platforms, or machines that we work with. So we can develop assays on all those dif-ferent platforms depending on what the customer wants.

We can also work with different tech-nologies as well. We are not just tied to real-time PCR. We have experience in other technologies, such as Luminex as well. So we are technology-neutral, machine device-neutral, and we can carry out projects of any length as well. This flexibility makes Dx assays very attractive to our customers.

Innovation from my point of view is developing products, which meet the specific markets needs.

Dr. John R. Thornback - Chief Executive Officer, DX ASSAYS

39

FR: In terms of innovation, what can Dx assays bring to the business process?DR. JOHN R. THORNBACK: Going forward, clearly it is how can we develop products that meet the market needs, primarily within the Asia Pacific region. That is where the innovation comes in, either in terms of technology, or whether it is innovation in terms of devices that we can adapt. Inno-vation from my point of view is developing products, which meet the specific markets needs. You cannot take a product that isdesigned for a Western European or USmarket and assume it is going to work. Thehealthcare system is different, the accessto healthcare is different. That is a critical point. It is different in Singapore to what it is in China, Korea and Taiwan, for exam-ple, because they are all different markets.

FR: What is your view about Singapore and research capabilities?DR. JOHN R. THORNBACK: Singapore has a very educated workforce. It is a small country so the pool of people - Singaporeans - is quite small. There are very good people around, but we are all competing for a relatively limited pool of people. However, Singa-pore’s immigration laws do allow us to bring people in.

Because it is a small country, and a rela-tively small body of people, there are a rel-atively small number of companies that do what we do at the moment. That will grow as time goes on and there will be more and more companies.

I think Singapore’s challenge will be to grow that pool of talent, and to maintain it.

FR: How easy was it to move from academia to business, and do you regret making the move?

DR. JOHN R. THORNBACK: I left academia in 1988 when I was hired by one of the first European biotech companies as head of R&D. The industry has changed a lot since then. But to be honest, it is not something I have regretted at all.

When I left academia, the first thing I did was to bring ideas I had to the indus-try and take those forward as product developments. Biotechnology has a huge commercial focus as you move forward. I think that sometimes that takes a long time for many academics to acknowledge. That is what makes biotechnology excit-ing. One of the main things is that you see the best of both worlds if you are in the biotech industry, because you are still very much focused on innovation and developing new products, and starting from scratch.

We can take an idea, a concept, and we can actually get a product on the market in the diagnostics industry. The pharma industry is a bit different, as it can take 10-15 years. However, for a diagnostics company, we can take a product from scratch to the market in 18 months to two years.

You can actually say, “Something I developed, which came from my idea, is now routinely being used in a clinic and is potentially helping save people’s lives.” That is really a nice thing to be able to say, which is, at the end of the day, why we come to work in the morning. n

When I left academia, the first thing I did was to bring ideas I had to the industry and take those forward as product developments.

40

Company indexAB Sciex .............................................. 9

Agency for Science Technology and Research (A* Star) ............................ 24

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals .................. 17

BD ....................................................... 10

Beacons Pharmaceuticals ................ 18

Biosensors ......................................... 34

BioSingapore...................................... 15

Boehringer Ingelheim .................. 12,30

Chugai PharmaBody Research ........ 17

Economic Development Board Investments (EDBI) ........................... 22

Frost & Sullivan .................................. 9

GE Healthcare ................................... 28

Greatbatch ......................................... 14

Health Sciences Authority ................ 20

HOYA Surgical Optics ...................17,36

ICM Pharma ....................................... 16

GSK .................................................... 26

Life Technologies ............................... 32

LKF ..................................................... 16

Maccine ............................................... 8

Menicon ............................................. 16

MSD ..................................................... 4

National University of

Singapore (NUS) ................................. 8

Nanyang Technological

University (NTU) ................................. 8

Novartis ......................................... 8, 22

Pfizer .................................................. 14

P&G ...................................................... 5

S* Bio ............................................. 6, 22

Singapore Economic Development

Board ( EDB) ...................2, 6, 11, 22, 37

Sunward Pharmaceutical ................. 16

Takeda Global Research &

Development Center ( Asia) ............. 13

TriReme Medical ............................... 16

41

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