Editor’s Note
Several companies made important announcements in June. Notably, GSK commemorated its 50th year anniversary in Singapore with the opening of its first Asian biologics vaccine plant. GSK also announced key developments of its 10-year roadmap with the EDB. In addition, ICON plc celebrated its 10th year anniversary in Singapore with the opening of its expanded central lab. Other key company announcements include Affymetrix completing its consolidation of micro-array manufacturing in Singapore and Agilent’s opening of its new life science instrument manufacturing facility.

• GSK marks 50^th anniversary in Singapore with first Asian vaccine plant
• Affymetrix consolidates micro-array manufacturing in Singapore
• Agilent Technologies opens life sciences manufacturing facility
• ICON expands central laboratory
• Investigational Medicine Unit opens at National University Health System
• A*STAR scientists reports novel discovery in dendritic cell signalling pathways
• A*STAR Scientists invent world’s first molecular gear of nano proportions
• Singapore presents Clinician Scientist Awards to promote translational research
• A*STAR scientists elected into prestigious US National Academy of Sciences
• A*STAR hosts top Japanese immunologist at first joint symposium with University of Osaka
• Pacific Healthcare announces new private cancer hospital

GSK marks 50^th anniversary in Singapore with first Asian vaccine plant
GlaxoSmithKline celebrated its 50^th anniversary of doing business in Singapore, by opening its new S$600 million vaccine plant. This facility is GSK’s first primary vaccine manufacturing plant and its biggest investment in Asia. The plant will be one of only two global sites to produce purified bulk polysaccharides and conjugates, which are used to manufacture GSK's new pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, meningitis, and other new innovative vaccines.

The opening of GSK’s vaccine plant also marks the beginning of GSK’s 10-year roadmap with the EDB to boost excellence in R&D, green manufacturing and talent development. In line with this roadmap, GSK will set up an Academic Centre of Excellence to further support drug discovery in Singapore. GSK also announced a S$30 million endowment fund to support graduate studies and research in green manufacturing and public health policy. EDB will contribute another S$20 million to this endowment fund to develop capabilities in manufacturing technologies of the future.

Affymetrix consolidates micro-array manufacturing in Singapore
Affymetrix announced the consolidation of all microarray manufacturing activities within its plant in Singapore, and moved all US distribution activities from Sacramento, California to a center operated by UPS in Louisville, Kentucky. These milestones were achieved three months ahead of schedule. The Singapore facility achieved ISO 13845 certification in November, 2008.
 
"These changes will create significant operating leverage for Affymetrix," said Kevin King, president and CEO of Affymetrix. "As a result, our manufacturing capabilities are significantly more efficient and in turn will lower our products costs and improve our gross margin. Now that all of our consolidation activities are complete, we anticipate annual savings on the order of $20 to $25 million."

Agilent Technologies opens life sciences manufacturing facility
Agilent Technologies officially opened a new life sciences manufacturing facility in Singapore, designed to produce liquid-handling and laboratory robotic instruments.  This is Agilent’s first facility outside of the United States that manufactures high-precision laboratory automation instruments. The instruments to be manufactured here will be used by pharmaceutical companies for mass commercial production of drugs. These instruments, which automate laboratory sample-preparation processes such as DNA extraction and cell screening, will help researchers and scientists increase productivity while keeping costs down.

ICON expands central laboratory
ICON plc has moved its Singapore central laboratory to a new 9,000 sq ft laboratory to meet the growth in demand for ICON Central Laboratories’ services in Singapore, which has increased by 149% over the past six months. The larger facility also enables ICON Central Laboratories to expand its test menu offerings in the region to include increased esoteric testing as well as flow cytometry, molecular diagnostics and biomarkers.

ICON Central Laboratories Singapore supports all major therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, oncology, endocrinology and metabolism, and virology.  The laboratory serves as a regional hub for test samples from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia.  ICON Central Laboratories Singapore received CAP (College of American Pathologists) accreditation in March 2009, ensuring the highest standards of excellence in laboratory services.

Investigational Medicine Unit opens at National University Health System
Located in Kent Ridge Campus, one of Singapore’s two key translational and clinical research campuses, the National University Health System (NUHS) opened its Investigational Medicine Unit (IMU). This facility will focus on early research in humans, including Proof of Concept, Phase 1 (including First in Man) and Phase 2a clinical trials for novel drugs and diagnostics, research on biomarkers and disease mechanisms as well as bio-imaging studies.

The IMU will facilitate the translation of basic science discoveries from Singapore’s biomedical initiatives into potential clinical applications. It will also contribute to the development of the National Specialty Centres for cancer and cardiovascular medicine on the NUHS campus. The IMU will have access to clinician-investigators, clinical pharmacologists, biostatisticians, and other research support staff. Apart from clinical trials, the IMU also supports academic clinical research which will add to the body of scientific knowledge, providing opportunities for the development of new and novel therapies.

For a start, the IMU is embarking on four key strategic research programmes:
Clinical pharmacology studies; Experimental therapeutics/predictive oncology programme; Translational Clinical Research Metabolic Medicine research project on Developmental Pathways to Metabolic Diseases; Competitive Research Project on stroke.

For more info, please click here.

A*STAR scientists reports novel discovery in dendritic cell signalling pathways
Scientists from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, have discovered another signaling pathway for the activation and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of dendritic cells. This discovery was published in the advanced online publication of Nature on 15 Jun 2009. Independent activation of immune receptor CD14 through the NFAT pathway potentially heralds new ways to treat related conditions such as sepsis, heart failure and lessen side effects of immunosuppression.

For more info, please click here.

A*STAR Scientists invent world’s first molecular gear of nano proportions
Scientists from A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), led by Professor Christian Joachim,  have scored a breakthrough in nanotechnology by becoming the first in the world to invent a molecular gear of the size of 1.2nm whose rotation can be deliberately controlled. This achievement marks a radical shift in the scientific progress of molecular machines that may, for example, walk on DNA tracks in the future to deliver therapeutics to heal and cure. The research is published on 15 June 2009 in Nature Materials.

For more info, please click here.

Singapore presents Clinician Scientist Awards to promote translational research
Six medical doctors received the Clinician Scientist Awards (CSAs) for 2009, adding to the growing pool of clinician scientists (doctors-researchers) in Singapore to drive translational and clinical research development here. Under the scheme that was introduced in 2004, the clinician scientists will spend at least 70% of their time doing research relevant to their areas of specialty and the remaining to see patients. Coupled with good research infrastructure and institutional support, this programme aims to provide the clinician scientists with a conducive environment for medically relevant research that will one day translate into better healthcare delivery for Singapore patients.

For more info, please click here.

A*STAR scientists elected into prestigious US National Academy of Sciences
Renowned cancer geneticists, Professor Neal Copeland, Executive Director of A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), and Professor Nancy Jenkins, Deputy Director of the Genetics and Genomics Division at IMCB, have accepted their election into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in the United States this year for their outstanding contributions to genetic research. Since they joined A*STAR in 2006, the pair have been working on new ways of analysing the cancer genome, or characterising the genetic changes required to promote or sustain tumour formation.

A*STAR hosts top Japanese immunologist at first joint symposium with University of Osaka

Prof Shizuo Akira, the world’s most highly cited immunologist and Director of Immunology Frontier Research Centre (IFReC), visited Singapore to deliver the keynote address at the inaugural symposium jointly organised by A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and IFReC. The symposium aims to build closer links and create opportunities for further research collaborations on immunology between Singapore and Japan.

Pacific Healthcare announces new private cancer hospital
Singapore’s leading healthcare service provider announced plans to build Pacific Cancer Cancer, a private hospital dedicated to cancer treatment. The 28,000 square-feet hospital will be equipped with a 24-hour clinic, day surgery facility with operation theatres, chemotherapy suites and consultation rooms. Pacific Healthcare is investing S$23 million to equip and operate the hospital, which will be ready by 2011.

To find out more about Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences scene,
please visit www.biomed-singapore.com