Page 36 - ASPRI 2122 v2

DIRECTORY OF SINGAPORE PROCESS & CHEMICALS INDUSTRIES 2021/2022
Pharma sector emerges as top manufacturing performer
In an angst filled year where declining business incomes were the norm, Singapore’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing output jumped 24% to S$18.4 billion in 2020, making it the top performer in the manufacturing industry. Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at consultancy IHS Markit, told news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) that Singapore “plays an important role in the global pharmaceutical industry supply chain”.
While much attention was focused on vaccine development, globally governments and private-sector firms in 2020 were “building up inventories of critical drugs as a result of the severe supply chain disruptions in many countries during the pandemic”.
Singapore’s biomedical manufacturing cluster’s strong performance lifted output for 2020 to S$33.6 billion, up 14% from 2019. Medical technology increased by a smaller 3.9% to S$14.6 billion.
Employment numbers in the cluster rose 1.8% to 24,943 and investment commitment jumped 172% to S$638.2 million.
The pharmaceutical industry’s performance has continued to strengthen. In the first six months of 2021, manufacturing output edged up by 1.8% with strong double-digit gains of 40% and 45.2% in May and June, on higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products.
Pharmaceuticals
Medical Technology
Biomedical Manufacturing
Source: Economic Development Board
More new pharma majors
investing in Singapore
The pandemic has given a boost to investments in Singapore’s pharma industry. In October 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific disclosed plans to build a US$130 million “fill-and-finish” facility to develop and manufacture vaccines and therapies. Once operational in 2022, the plant will manufacture up to 30 million sterile doses a month. It also will have the versatility to manufacture a wide variety of products and enhance Singapore’s resilience to future pandemics.
Seven months later, in April 2021, Sanofi announced plans to invest €400 million (S$637.8 million) over five years in a new vaccine production site in Singapore. Located at Tuas Biomedical Park, it will allow Sanofi to produce innovative vaccines on a massive scale for Asia and respond to future pandemic risks.
The plant is built for flexibility. It will house several fully digitalised modules that allow production of three to four vaccines simultaneously, against just one in current industrial sites. In addition, it will have the flexibility to leverage multiple vaccine manufacturing technology platforms based on different cell types.
“This modularity and flexibility will allow the production of a specific vaccine to be prioritised in a faster timeframe depending on public health needs,” the company said.
In May, BioNTech, the German biotechnology firm which partnered Pfizer to develop the
ground-breaking Covid-19 vaccine based on the Messenger RNA (mRNA), announced it would be setting up its regional headquarters and a manufacturing facility in Singapore.
Slated to begin operations in 2023, the highly automated facility will have “end-to- end mRNA production capabilities across drug substance, drug product and fill-and-finish, with an estimated annual capacity of several hundred of million doses of mRNA-based vaccines depending on the vaccines”, the company said. It will serve as “a rapid response production capability for Southeast Asia to address potential pandemic threats”.
Speaking in an online press conference after the announcement, then Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said, the new investment is “a boost” to the country’s biopharmaceutical ecosystem and will strengthen the portfolio of different vaccine production technologies in Singapore.
“There will be new viruses that will emerge in time to come and what we need is a strong R&D partnership to make sure that we continuously evolve our products in a timely fashion to serve our local and regional markets,” Mr Chan added.
Challenging year
for industry majors
For the pharmaceutical majors, Covid-19 was a double-edged sword. While it allowed the industry to marshal its resources to deliver vaccines and therapies to fight the virus and heal the millions afflicted, it also presented a
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Output, 2016-2020
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020 (p)
17,744.8
11,521.9
29,266.7
17,109.0
12,373.6
29,482.7
21,229.6
13,314.9
34,544.6
14,798.3 (24)
14,592.8 (3.9)
18.395.5
15,164.1
33,559.6
29,391.1 (14)
30