Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at the Biobiz 2006 Conference

KEYNOTE Address by Minister for community development, youth and sports and second Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr vivian balakrishnan, at the biobiz 2006 conference on Saturday, 11 march 2006, 9.00am, held at the bio polis

Professor Barry Halliwell
Deputy President (Research and Technology), NUS

Professor Christopher Earley
Dean, NUS Business School

Associate Prof Milton Tan
President Harvard Club of Singapore

Distinguished Speakers and Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good morning.

I am delighted to join you at this morning’s conference, organized by the National University of Singapore and supported by the Harvard Club of Singapore. Today’s conference is a unique opportunity for our undergraduate and graduate students and industry professionals to come together to explore the business aspects of biomedical sciences (or BMS).

Review of BMS sector

This conference is timely, riding on the rising BMS wave. The BMS sector has seen significant growth, since we embarked on our BMS initiative in 2000. Manufacturing output (of the sector) has grown at a compounded annual rate of 23%, from $6.4 billion in 2000 to $18 billion in 2005.value-added grew at 19% to $9.2 billion in 2005, and employment at 12%.

Our BMS efforts have gained international mindshare. Today, five A*STAR Research Institutes (or RIs) with core biomedical scientific capabilities are firmly rooted in Bio polis, providing a strong foundation for the BMS industry. We have attracted several eminent scientists to join us at Biopolis. Multinational companies like GlaxoSmithKline (UK), Novartis (Switzerland) and Eli Lilly (US) have set up corporate R&D labs in Singapore. A*STAR has also built a healthy stream of PhD scholars who will be returning to deepen our research talent pool. 

Science & Technology (S&T) Plan 2010

R&D is crucial for the transformation of our economy. It will build a strong foundation for sustainable growth and competitiveness. Competitiveness will not be based on lower costs, but about talent and creating value.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has recently announced the national Science & Technology (S&T) Plan 2010 for the next five years. We have committed $7.5 billion to promote R&D to support the growth of key industry clusters, of which the BMS sector is a key sector.

A*STAR and EDB will continue to develop human capital, intellectual capital, and industrial capital to bring our BMS development up to the next phase.

Translational Research

In particular, A*STAR will work closely with the Ministry of Health to strengthen our capabilities in translational and clinical research. Research in cancer biomarkers, cohort studies, stem cells, bio-imaging and drug discovery will be actively pursued.

Traditionally, scientific discoveries made at the lab benches eventually find their way to the patient’s bedside. We need to do this, as well as the converse. We will also adopt a ‘bedside to bench’ approach, where pertinent clinical needs are used to direct basic research finding search of significant clinical applications.

This focus on translational research will bridge the gap between basic science and clinical application. It will not only speed up the improvements to healthcare, but also create more opportunities for bio-businesses to commercialize technologies with proven clinical and market potential.

My own experience in ophthalmology has taught me that key breakthroughs in the future will arise at the interfaces of multi-disciplinary domains. These domains stretch across biomedical sciences, physical sciences and engineering. For instance, the two commonest ophthalmic operations, cataract surgery and LASIK, have been transformed by advances in laser and precision engineering. The ability to organize such cross disciplinary collaboration will be another key competitive edge for the development of new technologies.

Commercialization of R&D

Ultimately, we hope to see new ideas translated into products and services which have market value.

Indeed, we have had some early successes in bringing the Intellectual Property from RIs and the universities out to the market.

For example, a local biotech start-up Veredus Laboratories Pte Ltd launched the Avian Flu H5N1 diagnostic kit based on propriety nucleic acid diagnostic primers developed at the A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).This kit was tested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and found to be highly sensitive and specific for the H5N1 strain. Veredus also tapped into the research work of A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and NUS to produce diagnostic kits for dengue and for malaria. The malaria kit not only allows rapid confirmation of malaria infection, but also early identification of the specific species of malaria parasite. These kits would help in the fight and early treatment of some infectious diseases.

We will continue to build on these efforts to generate value from research output.

Building Talent - NUS Life Sciences Curriculum

Talent is the key ingredient for a knowledge intensive because ideas can only be germinated in a human brain. I am therefore happy that the NUS life science curriculum (introduced in 2001) is very popular, with a steady state intake of 500 students per year. The program also teaches about 2,500 non-life science students on campus as part of their curricula or enrichment modules.

I am also encouraged that the NUS Business School has developed programmes catering specially for professionals from the biomedical and healthcare industries. I am told that the MBA (Healthcare Management) programme developed jointly by NUS Business School and Division of Graduate Medical Studies is the first to be offered in Asia. NUS Business School is also equipped to customize and design post-graduate degree courses such as Biomedical Management / Entrepreneurship for corporations, which helps equip professionals with the knowledge on the vast business opportunities in the BMS industry.

Conclusion

The BMS sector offers diverse opportunities for many disciplines and professions. We will need business-savvy scientists, and science-savvy businessmen. In this light, forums such as Bio Biz 2006 will be very useful in facilitating interaction amongst the science minded and the business minded, and with those who have first hand experience in setting up or running bio-companies.

It is an excellent, "real-life experience" platform for our students to work together on a cross-disciplinary area, and together with industry. I urge you to take this unique opportunity to interact, network and build relationships across different fields of business, biomedical sciences, medicine and engineering.

On this note, I wish all of you a very fruitful conference.

Thank you.