Posted on 11/11/2013 7:13:40 PM PST by TexGrill
SINGAPORE: Pharmaceutical giants have invested S$2.4 billion in Singapore, setting up eight biologics manufacturing plants within the last five years.
The biologics sector now employs 1,700 people.
EDB estimates that new jobs in the sector will increase by 60 per cent, or 1,000 jobs, over the next three to four years.
A biological product differs from traditional pharmaceutical drugs which are chemical based.
For example, ovary cells that are cultivated from Chinese hamsters produce antibodies that can be used to treat breast cancer.
Lam Kong-Peng, executive director of A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute, said: "Biologics most closely resemble our own bodies' molecules. So in a way, they have less side effects, they can be tolerated better by our bodies, our own systems. They are synthesised in living cells, as opposed to a chemical process. They are much more complex and frequently, they are… targeted towards (combating) certain diseases."
A*STAR's Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) is the key institute in Singapore training researchers in the biologics field.
Over the past seven years, BTI has trained some 180 science and engineering graduates and helped placed them in firms such as pharmaceuticals firms Roche, GSK and Novartis.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
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