Singapore provides a nearly optimal hub into the Asian markets. It also offers high class infrastructure in all sectors from transportation to communication, and a strong commitment of the government towards serving investors especially from the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutics. A flat hierarchy enables quick decisions and a high degree of liability.

We asked two global players of the pharmaceutical industry why they invest in the location of Singapore instead of other possible sites. We talked to a company that is resident in Singapore for several years and already had the opportunity to collect experience about this location, and to a company that that recently opened a dependence in Singapore.
Additionally we interviewed Kian-Teik Beh, Director, Biomedical Sciences, Singapore Economic Development Board, to address the challenges for Singapore to further develop the opportunities for foreign investors.

Schering-Plough which merged with MSD last year opened its Translational Medicine Research Centre in February 2009, the research center is focused on biomarker discovery and development. We talked to Erik Sprengers, PhD, director of MSD's Translational Medicine Research Centre, about the current situation for investors from the bio-pharmaceutical business in Singapore.

What are the reasons for choosing Singapore for your new research centre?

Erik Sprengers: Singapore offers a well-developed biomedical research infrastructure which is notably strong in translational sciences. Since English is a first language and the Singaporeans are a community of sophisticated individuals who have many experiences internationally, supplemented by the geographical proximity to the markets showing world's strongest development, Singapore is a perfect stepping stone into Asia.

What are the efforts of the Singaporean government to make Singapore interesting for the pharmaceutical industry?

Erik Sprengers: Despite the already existing success, the government allows itself no let-up in efforts to further improve science and medicine infrastructure and its educational system.

Investors are further supported by a good regulatory oversight, resulting in fast turnaround times of regulatory procedures with respect to clinical protocols. This, besides many other factors, leads to an overall business climate that supports biomedical innovation.

Do you receive support from the Singaporean government?

Erik Sprengers: We continue to maintain strong collaboration with the Singaporean government and the local scientific and medical community. We are still, however, in the early days of our Translational Medicine Research Centre. The local government is doing a great job developing the biomedical sciences here and a pharmaceutical company like ours brings complementary skills to the table. We know how to translate discovery research into new therapies.

What are your strongest demands to the government for the next years?

Erik Sprengers: Further expansion of biomedical landscape (R&D) and of the biomedical education system.

Do Singapore's Universities educate enough skilled personnel for running research institutions or are you forced to hire foreign researchers?

Erik Sprengers: In the current environment, highly skilled senior roles are filled by foreign nationals. Also for jobs in certain specialty areas, research talent and expertise is often brought in from other countries as Singapore is an excellent place to live.

Are Singapore's Universities large enough to enable efficient and sufficient cooperation with your research department?

Erik Sprengers: For the moment, yes. With further growth of the biomedical sciences and R&D activities (industry and academia), the capacity of the Singaporean universities in training scientists needs to be further explored and developed.

Novartis founded its Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore in 2002. For the development of treatment and prevention methods against tropical diseases that are typical for this part of the world, it is very useful to do research on-site. At this location they can find patients facing their diseases personnel with an extremely high motivation to work in this field. We talked to Prof. Paul L. Herrling, Chairman of the Board at Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases.

Please give us a short overview for the reason why Novartis founded its Institute for Tropical Disease (NITD) in Singapore instead of other possible sites in the area.

Paul L. Herrling: Novartis decided to allocate part of its drug discovery resources to neglected tropical diseases. The choice of location for a research institute is a strategic challenge; the institute had to be located in the proximity to patients and their doctors in order to better understand their needs, it also had to be located in a country with a strong scientific community and have access to the best scientific talent. Singapore fulfilled all these criteria, and NITD was founded in 2002 as a public-private partnership between Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).