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Thursday, October 17, 2013

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT TONY TAN KENG YAM AT THE BIOPOLIS 10TH ANNIVERSARY GALA DINNER

Excellencies

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, A*STAR
Mr Leo Yip, Chairman, EDB
Dr Loo Choon Yong, Chairman, JTC Corporation

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here tonight and be part of tonight’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of Biopolis, Singapore’s hub for Biomedical Sciences (BMS) research and development.

Biopolis was conceived as a campus that would support and foster a span of research activities across BMS disciplines, and catalyse partnerships with corporate laboratories to take ideas from the bench to healthcare and industry development. Beginning with seven buildings in Phase 1 of its development in 2003, Biopolis is today in Phase 5 of its development with 13 buildings and 340,000 square meters of space. Today, there are 40 companies in Biopolis and more companies are planning to co-locate in its premises. There is a mix of over 2,500 public and private sector researchers from a diverse international community of over 70 nationalities. Biopolis is a conducive and vibrant “work, live, play and learn” research hub.

This unique environment generates opportunities for interaction and communication among public and private sector researchers, and we have seen many successful collaborations. One example is the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) which was the first pharma company to locate in Biopolis in 2004. Over the years, NITD has collaborated with A*STAR institutes such as the Genome Institute of Singapore, the Singapore Immunology Network and the Experimental Therapeutics Centre. Working with the Singapore Immunology Network and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, NITD is now developing a potential dengue vaccine that can target all four serotypes of the dengue virus.

Besides pharma companies, biologics and medical technology companies such as Abbott and Panasonic Health have also set up corporate labs in Biopolis. Chugai, a Japanese biologics company, officially opened a new $200 million antibody engineering research centre in July 2012, their second research centre in Biopolis. Besides multi-national companies, Singapore has produced a number of biomedical SMEs and start-ups including AIT Biotech, Curiox, HistoIndex, and Veredus Labs which have launched innovative medical products and have penetrated regional or global markets.

BMS research is also expanding beyond traditional pharma and biologics activities into food and nutrition, and personal care. Danone, L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble have established research centres in Singapore. These companies are increasingly relying on BMS research in order to develop products that are better suited to the markets in Asia. For example, Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) Singapore Innovation Centre in Biopolis, when fully established, will be the largest private sector tenant with 500 people. P&G made the strategic decision to locate its innovation centre in Biopolis because of the proximity to public sector researchers in Biopolis and Fusionopolis, and to leverage on the Asian phenotype in Singapore which would encourage innovations and facilitate the development of new consumer products for the burgeoning Asian markets.

We have witnessed remarkable growth of the BMS sector in Singapore over the past decade. Its manufacturing output has increased by nearly five times from $6 billion to $29.4 billion in 2012. The BMS industry is today the largest contributor to our manufacturing sector in terms of value-added in 2012, contributing more than a quarter of total manufacturing value-added. Employment in the BMS industry has also grown by 2.5 times, from 6,000 in 2000 to 15,700 in 2012. Singapore is today a leading manufacturing location for pharmaceuticals and biologics as well as various medical technology products, ranging from life science tools to medical devices.

Besides the infrastructure development of Biopolis as a hub for world-class R&D, talent is one of the key drivers in the BMS initiative. The BMS research community, made up of both the public and private sectors, has doubled in the last 10 years from 2,150 in 2002 to over 5,000 in 2011. More than 1,200 A*STAR scholars have been trained in biomedical as well as physical sciences and engineering and I am happy to note that a number of young Singaporean scientists are now leading their own research programmes in the A*STAR research institutes and in our universities. Singapore scientists have published consistently in leading journals such as Nature, Science and Cell over the last 10 years. Besides Biopolis, the Outram Campus has the Academia hub, NUS has the MD6 building for basic and translational research, and NTU will soon establish the Lee Kong Chian Medical School in Novena. Our ecosystem has become more diverse and vibrant, bringing discovery through the translational and clinical space much sooner.

Some of you may remember that the groundbreaking ceremony of the Biopolis in December 2001 took place when Singapore was experiencing one of her worst economic recessions then. The success of Biopolis and the BMS sector today is symbolic of Singapore’s commitment to anchor BMS as the fourth pillar of Singapore’s economic strategy to broaden and diversify our economic base by cultivating new knowledge-based industry clusters. The fact that we achieved all this in the space of 10 years could not have happened without the close cooperation of A*STAR, EDB and JTC, with strong support from the Ministry of Trade & Industry, Ministry of Health, the National Research Foundation, many other agencies, and many of the people here tonight, especially Mr Philip Yeo, the first Chairman of A*STAR.

I congratulate all of you on the 10th anniversary of Biopolis, and I wish Biopolis and our Biomedical Sciences sector many more years of success.

Thank you.

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SPEECH BY MR LIM CHUAN POH, CHAIRMAN OF AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH AT THE BIOPOLIS 10TH ANNIVERSARY GALA DINNER
President Dr Tony Tan,
Excellencies,
A*STAR Board Members;
Biomedical Sciences International Advisory Council Chairman Sir Richard Sykes and Council members;
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;

Welcome
A very good evening to all of you and thank you for joining us at this very special occasion.

Ten years ago, the Biopolis was officially launched by our President, Dr Tony Tan, when he was then the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Life Sciences Ministerial Committee. We are therefore deeply honoured and delighted that we can welcome President Tan to commemorate this occasion with us.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Tan said, “Biopolis was conceived as the cornerstone of a much broader vision to build the Biomedical Sciences Industry in Singapore. In doing so, the Biomedical Sciences Industry would generate economic wealth for Singapore, create jobs for our people, and improve human health and quality of life.” He added, “Singapore must ensure we have the right talent and conducive environment in order to capture a share of this knowledge-intensive growth industry. We must develop and nurture our own world class scientists, attract top international talent, and create a vibrant infrastructure for scientific talent and industry to thrive.”

On that visionary note, Biopolis became the world’s first integrated, purpose-built biomedical research complex, juxtaposing both public and private sector research laboratories.

Success of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative
Going back a few years before the Opening of Biopolis, Singapore launched its Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Initiative in June 2000 to focus on developing a full spectrum of research capabilities in biomedical science. Alongside Electronics, Chemicals and Engineering, the BMS sector was intended as one of the four main pillars of Singapore’s manufacturing economy.

The realisation of Biopolis Phase 1 three years later, in the words of Mr Philip Yeo, founding Chairman of A*STAR was, “We have been actively building up our human capital, intellectual capital and industrial capital to develop the full spectrum of Biomedical Sciences. The Biopolis will be a key focal point to integrate these efforts and catalyse growth in the Biomedical Sciences sector in Singapore. The close proximity of talent from corporate laboratories, start-ups and public research institutes will create a vibrant R&D environment to spur new discoveries and speed their translation into applications.”

Tonight, I am happy to report that we really have not done too badly after the last ten years and probably cannot do much better than what we did.

In this period, manufacturing output for the BMS sector has grown 5 times to reach over $29 billion in 2012, contributing to 5% of Singapore’s GDP. More significantly, it moves from being one of the smallest contributors to manufacturing value-add to now the largest share at 26%, edging past the electronics sector by 1%. Over 30 of the world’s leading biomedical sciences companies have set up their Regional HQs in Singapore alongside the more than 50 manufacturing plants. The presence of these companies significantly increases the BMS manufacturing employment from 6,000 to nearly 16,000 people last year. At the same time, we now have over 50 private BMS R&D centres. Together with the public sector, the BMS R&D workforce grew by 3.5 times to over 5,400 with those having PhDs growing at the highest rate. About half of these researchers are located in the Biopolis.

Correspondingly, there has also been significant intellectual capital development. In Nature Asia-Pacific ranking, Singapore is ranked fifth after Japan, China, Australia and South Korea but ranked first in the same journal in terms of research productivity or articles per researcher. The compound annual growth rate of Singapore’s publications with Nature was over 30% for the last seven years while the BMS patents filed grew at a CAGR of over 10%. We even managed 20 BMS Start-ups during this period.

At the national level, what started out in Biopolis has now spread to the wider BMS community in Singapore. Where there was only one medical school before, we now have three, the first being the oldest medical school at NUS, the YLL SoM; the second was a partnership between Duke and NUS to form the Duke-NUS GMS; while the latest is a partnership between NTU and Imperial College to form the LKC SoM. The newest medical school received their first cohort of students two months ago. Where there was no Academic Medical Centre, we now have two, one at Kent Ridge, and the other at the Outram Campus. Where there was only one BMS Research Institute, the Institue for Molecular and Cell Biology under A*STAR, we now have over 13 research institutes or equivalent between A*STAR, NUS and NTU constituting a rich spectrum of BMS research capabilities in Singapore.

I should want to highlight that realising our talent strategy has been one of the most heartening experiences. Simply put, our talent strategy is to build a strong robust core of local scientists to be complemented by a rich diversity of international scientists. To date, A*STAR have given out over 650 (BMS or BMS related) scholarships to enable Singaporeans to pursue research training at top institutions around the world with 40% of them having completed their training and are now doing research either with A*STAR or the universities. Some of them are already making their mark by competing internationally to win the A*STAR investigatorship or the NRF Fellowships among other awards. A few who started their research careers in Singapore as post-docs have now also reached leadership positions. At the same time, working with the autonomous universities, we have attracted over 1,000 international students from over 70 different countries with 43% of them doing research in the BMS area. About 400 of these students have since returned home or furthering their research training in other countries. They bring a bit of Singapore with them and they become the bridges that connect Singapore to wherever they go.

Acknowledgement of Guests / Partners
Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a busy 10 years but also an exciting and meaningful one and certainly one deserving of celebration. In this regard, I am particularly pleased that with us tonight are many people who have contributed to make Biopolis what it is today, I should also acknowledge the many more who cannot be here and I apologise if I am unable to fully acknowledge each of your contributions. To all of you, I just want to say that A*STAR is very grateful for all that you have done and we look forward to your continued support as we continue the journey to develop the Biomedical Sciences sector in Singapore.

In addition, I want to make particular mention of a few people who with their vision, drive and continued commitment, have been critical to the success of Biopolis and the Biomedical Sciences Initiative (BMSI). They include Dr. Sydney Brenner and Sir Richard Skyes for exposing Singapore to the field of biomedical research and the opportunities of the biomedical sciences industry. I should also want to thank both of them for having travelled this journey with Singapore since the inception of the BMSI and remaining fully committed to the endeavour.

I mentioned Mr Philip Yeo earlier, but this will not be complete without mentioning the other three members of his founding gang of four, who laid out the seed ideas of Biopolis and our BMS initiatives on napkins and white-boards. These three members are Professor Tan Chorh Chuan who is now also the Deputy Chairman of A*STAR, Dr John Wong, Vice-Provost Academic Medicine (NUS), Dr Kong Hwai Loong, the former ED of BMRC.

I mentioned A*STAR’s talent strategy earlier. But, that is incomplete. In order to jump start our efforts, we needed to bring in senior and eminent scientists to provide the leadership to the research efforts and also to attract other top scientists to want to be part of this exciting new enterprise. They are also needed to provide mentorship to the young Singaporeans that we are enthusing into pursuing research career. Philip Yeo called it kidnapping of whales and nurturing of guppies.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank some of these senior scientists such as George Radda, Edison Liu, Jackie Ying, David and Birgit Lane, as well as Edward Holmes and Judith Swain who have been there in one way or another from the beginning of this journey and most are still soldiering on with us.

Equally important tonight is the presence of many of our public sector partners without whose support and collaborations, we would not have achieved as much as we did. Some of these entities include EDB, JTC, MOH, the hospitals, HSA, our Universities, Institutes of Higher Learning and the NRF. I appreciate the presence of the Chairmen and senior leadership of these entities tonight such as Leo Yip, Loo Choon Yong, Keat Chuan, Cheong Boon. I also want to acknowledge the presence of those helming these organisations during the developmental stage including Neo Chian and Lit Chong at JTC, Swan Foo as MD A*STAR. The leaders of our public health institutions, such as Prof Ivy Ng, Prof Benjamin Ong and Prof Roy Chan, have also been instrumental in our translational efforts.

Also with us tonight are our industry partners. I am happy to see the representatives from over 50 companies (such as Abbott; Agilent Tech; Arkray; Chugai; Covidien; F&N; GSK; Illumina; Kelloggs; L’oreal; Mead Johnson; Novartis; P&G; Welch Allyn; Veredus Labs). Your presence here is an indication of the success of our efforts and your commitment to grow your R&D activities in Singapore adds to the buzz and vibrancy of the BMS research landscape. We look forward to continue working closely with you in mutually beneficial and productive ways to grow the Biomedical Sciences industry in Singapore. Given the rise of the Asian middle class and the possibilities of the Open Innovation Framework, there is much more that we can do together going forward.

Conclusion
To conclude, let me thank President Tan for gracing this occasion and all of you for your attendance. Tonight is not only a significant milestone for Biopolis, but also for all our public and private sector partners. There is much for us to celebrate based on what we have achieved and succeeded in the past decade. There is, however, even more that we can look forward to to shape the very exciting future of the Biomedical Sciences landscape and industry in Singapore and beyond. We have most of the ingredients for success and very importantly, we are seeing a much stronger spirit of cooperation, collaboration and community right across the public sector and with the private sector. This augurs well for the next ten years of Biopolis.

On that note, let me wish everyone an enjoyable and memorable evening.

Thank you very much.

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SPEECH BY SIR RICHARD SYKES, CHAIRMAN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL (BMS IAC) AT THE BIOPOLIS 10TH ANNIVERSARY GALA DINNER
My association with Singapore started back in 1987 when I had returned from the USA to be the global head of R&D for Glaxo in the UK. Glaxo had invested heavily in Singapore in the early 80s, building its primary manufacturing plant in Jurong for Zantac, which went on to become the world’s largest selling medication by value.

My first visit was to IMCB which had just been completed, in fact walking around the building with Chris Tan, we came across a sleeping python under some building materials. That is the only snake I have ever seen in all my visits to Singapore over the past 26 years.

Following our meeting with the python we then went on to meet with Philip and Sydney to talk about how Glaxo might engage with the Institute and that marked the beginning of a long association between Glaxo and the IMCB, leading to the establishment of the Centre for Natural Products Research in 1993. This went on to become Merlion Pharmaceuticals in 2002, one of Singapore’s early biotech companies. Swee Yeok and I were the original board members back in 1993 and we are still taking the same drugs. I also sat on the EDB board at that time.

Glaxo’s manufacturing and development facilities increased considerably in the 1990s and we also put up $50 million to fund a scholarship scheme to send some of the most able students to study at top universities around the world. Between 1990 and 2005 the scheme funded 300 scholarships and I am sure there are many Glaxo scholars working in Singapore today and perhaps here with us this evening.

The big turning point came in 2000 with the launching of the BMS initiative with the strategic intent to develop the biomedical sciences cluster as one of the key pillars of the Singapore economy. Philip and Sydney were very much at the forefront of developing strategies to develop the sector through building intellectual capital, human capital and industrial capital. They were also responsible for setting up the IAC in 2000 and I was roped in by Sydney to be his co-chair. The IAC council was set up to advise and guide the government in the implementation of the long term BMS strategy. We managed to bring some very high powered people on board from around the world, from both industry and academia, including a number of Nobel Prize winners. In fact, no one turned us down; everyone we approached was so excited about the project, they could not wait to get involved.

Over the last 10 years, the BMS initiative then developed in three distinct phases. The first phase was the most dramatic and exciting as this involved the building of the basic research infrastructure, establishing the capabilities and setting up the Institutes. It was out of this development that the concept of a major centre to house all the various research activities was born and Biopolis came into being.

During this period I was a director of Bio*One Capital and later a member of the EDBIs board, the parent investment company of Bio*One, since 2009. It was here that we helped conceptualise and develop many of the BMS investment strategies, namely the building of commercial R&D capabilities

The seeding of these companies demonstrated Singapore’s commitment to the industry which in turn attracted many large pharma corporations to Singapore.

The second phase of the BMS development took place between 2005 and 2010 and this was concentrated on building the translational and clinical research capabilities. It was during this period that I started working closely with Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of A*STAR and Ms Yong Ying–I, former Permanent Secretary for Health, who were the BMS Exco chairs at that time. Biopolis had been launched in 2003 as a hub for BMS research anchored by the A*STAR research institutes in areas such as genomics, bioinformatics, bioengineering and nanotechnology and the pharma companies such as Novartis and GSK had already started their corporate labs there. To continue developing the talent pool, a scholarship scheme was set up in 2001 by A*STAR, which provided 1000 BS and PhD scholarships over a 10 year period.

Senior scientists were attracted from abroad to take up key scientific leadership positions. These efforts catapulted Singapore onto the world R&D stage and Singapore was admired globally for its bold vision and swift implementation.

During this period from 2006 to 2010, various programmes were started to encourage clinicians to work alongside scientists to focus on strategic disease areas, including the TCR flagship programmes and Bedside and Bench grants as well as to build up the pipeline of clinician scientists. These programmes were key to integrating the basic and clinical research communities and for encouraging the translation of biomedical research ideas into useful clinical outcomes.

On the manufacturing side through EDBI we helped steer the formation of the biologics cluster in Singapore, with its genesis in the spin-off of A-BIO, Singapore’s first CMO from the Bioprocessing Technology Institute in 2004. Bio*One partnered with Lonza in 2005 to build a large scale biologics facility which created 740 highly skilled jobs and $600 million of fixed asset investments. Through the support of EDB and A*STAR the BIO*One Lonza JV became the foundation for multiple biologics manufacturing operations in Singapore today ( GSK, Baxter, Genentech, Novartis).

The phase three of the BMS initiative which started in 2011 was about payback time. To bring the benefit of all the hard work and investment made over the past 10 years and make economic, health and social impact for Singapore. It is also important to seize new opportunities through BMS research and it is pleasing to see A*STAR’s biomedical research institutes now working closely with companies in the nutrition and personal care sectors. Opportunities also exist for greater interdisciplinary research with the physical scientists and engineers in Fusionopolis, particularly in the areas of Medtech and Digital Health.

Finally, we have to remember that BMS research is a long term endeavour, and one that needs patience and commitment and to have the nerve to stick to a long term plan. Singapore is still relatively young as a BMS hub compared to the long established hubs such as Boston, San Diego and Cambridge (UK). However, the progress that has been made in the last 13 years has been remarkable and what has been achieved in terms of good science, innovation, world class talent and growth of the BMS industry is unparalleled. The next important step will be the development of a National Strategy for Biomedical Sciences in order to realise the vision in full.

On behalf of the IAC board, most of whom are present with us here this evening, I would like to offer our congratulations to A*STAR, EDB and JTC and the rest of the BMS community in Singapore on the 10th anniversary of Biopolis and wish you all, many more years of success and importantly, impact to the economy, health and society as a whole. Thank you.