Speech by Minister Lim Hng Kiang at the Opening Ceremony of Amgen Singapore's Biologics Manufacturing Facility at Tuas Biomedical Park

Mr Kirk Wagar, US Ambassador to Singapore,

Mr. Robert Bradway, CEO of Amgen,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. I am pleased to join you today at the opening of Amgen’s next generation biomanufacturing facility. Let me begin by congratulating the Amgen leadership on this milestone. 

We are delighted that Amgen has selected Singapore as the location for its first major manufacturing investment in Asia. This cutting-edge plant is expected to be more productive than existing facilities, optimise land use and improve on current levels of water and energy efficiency. It is aligned with Singapore’s efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth.   It is remarkable that such an innovative facility has taken less than two years to construct, particularly given the complexity involved in building a biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant.

I was also pleased to hear Amgen’s announcement this morning of their plans to invest in a second plant in Singapore.  This is a strong vote of confidence in Singapore, and we look forward to working with you to make this second project a success as well.

Manufacturing remains a key pillar of Singapore economy

The manufacturing sector, which contributed close to 20 per cent of our GDP in 2013, is an important sector to Singapore. A strong manufacturing base will allow us to diversify our economy and make it more resilient. High-value manufacturing also creates good jobs for Singaporeans, and stimulates demand for sophisticated services.

We will continue to invest in talent development, R&D, and in building up the capabilities of our local ecosystem to create a compelling value proposition for manufacturing companies to invest in Singapore. Over the years, we have worked around our land, energy and manpower constraints by implementing innovative solutions in partnership with companies to raise productivity and resource efficiency. These efforts have enabled companies in Singapore to achieve commercial success by manufacturing high-value complex products in innovative and efficient manufacturing plants.

Singapore is well positioned to seize and support the growth in biopharmaceutical manufacturing

The biopharmaceutical industry is a prime example of how companies have recognised Singapore’s strong value-proposition for sophisticated manufacturing. Today, Singapore is home to nine world-class commercial-scale biologics manufacturing facilities, including this Amgen facility. This knowledge- and skill-intensive industry has created over 6,000 jobs. More than 80 per cent of these positions are held by locals.

In addition, we are also seeing a growing number of biomedical sciences companies establishing strategic home bases in Singapore to drive business expansion. These companies had selected Singapore as a trusted location to coordinate and grow their business operations across Asia. They draw on and add to Singapore’s strong local talent base, local R&D capabilities, close connectivity and knowledge of the region.

Singapore’s commitment to grow and develop skilled manpower for the biopharmaceutical industry

We will continue to refine and enhance this value-proposition to the biomedical sciences industry. For example, we will make further investments in the coming years to build up our research capabilities and drive innovation. This will help to pre-position Singapore to seize opportunities offered by the introduction of new and disruptive technologies into this industry, and improve productivity and efficiency through methods such as continuous processing . These investments will complement the established strengths of our local research institutes such as the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) and the Institute of Chemical & Engineering Sciences (ICES). As many disruptive technologies may cut across companies, I strongly encourage companies to partner with our research institutes to build consortiums that can drive the future of biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies.

We will also work with the industry and other agencies to develop our local talent pool. While this industry creates good jobs for Singaporeans, the rapid technological change in this industry means that workers will need to continually upgrade their skills.

For example, to meet the demand for skilled manpower across all levels of the industry, EDB works closely with the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers Advisory Committee (BMAC ), a joint partnership between the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry and government. The partnership organises programmes to develop industry-ready talent. In addition, EDB and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) are developing a biologics manpower development masterplan together with Amgen and other key biomanufacturing companies. Details on this will be announced next month . Such close collaboration between government agencies and the industry helps ensure that we continue to equip Singaporeans with industry-relevant skills, both in school and after they have joined the workforce.

We will also continue to explore other ways to reinforce our value proposition as a Home for companies like Amgen. For example, the current lack of regulatory talent and market fragmentation in Asia pose significant challenges to companies in the areas of product development and market access. To address some of these challenges, the Health Sciences Authority collaborated with Duke-NUS to set up the Centre of Regulatory Excellence (or CoRE). This Centre aims to establish thought leadership in regulatory policy, by conducting forums on regulatory policy and facilitating the sharing of best practices.

Conclusion

In closing, I would like to thank Amgen for your continued investments that have contributed to the vibrancy of our biopharmaceutical industry. I look forward to further partnerships with Amgen in the coming years. Thank you.