Singapore's
New Pillar
"No
use re-inventing the wheel" our leaders once
said.We were too small to take on the West doing new
things. Well, a big change is under way.
Nov 25, 2000
Singapore's
own biotech start-up and the first to be privately
funded, Lynk Biotechnologies, has begun operation
at a science park to market its discoveries to pharmaceutical
companies.
The
firm, founded by National University of Singapore
(NUS) researcher Lee Chee Wee, has developed four
promising drugs with the potential to fight cancer,
obesity, heart disease and infections.
Soon
UK-based GeneMedix will become the first biotechnology
company to get a listing here to raise money to set
up three plants (two in Asia and one in Europe) to
produce generic versions of branded therapeutic proteins
using recombinant DNA technology.
With
science parks sprouting up all over the region, Singapore
is hard pressed to speed up exploring the new promises
of bio-medical research to combat diseases and improve
human life.
It
is doing it with a bang.
Since
the recent breakthrough in the mapping of human genes,
the 21st Century has been touted as the Century of
Biology, just as the last one was the computer's -
and Singapore is placing a heavy bet on it.
The
Economic Development Board has $2 billion in funds
to assist research and cultivate start-ups. Under
chairman Philip Yeo, it has drawn up a bio-strategy
to turn Singapore into a regional centre for clinical
trials.
The
republic aims to attract 15 world-class biosciences
companies here by 2010. In June it launched an ambitious
$60 million Singapore Genomics Programme to study
the genetic makeup of diverse Asian peoples.
Making
Life Sciences a new growth pillar signals an end to
a passive learn-and-copy manufacturing strategy that
marked the first 30 years of independence.
It
is a far cry from the 1950's when imported air conditioners
or TV sets sold on the strength that Japanese technicians
would tend them. Singapore didn't have many of these
and the few were of inferior quality.
Singaporeans
shunned blue overalls. They preferred putting on a
long-sleeved shirt and tie to sell the products, rather
than do such "dirty" work.
With
one of the world's top six per capita earnings, Singapore
is becoming too expensive for low-end manufacturing
and has to move into high-value businesses - or be
overwhelmed.
So
instead of just copying from others, companies have
become new innovators in recent year in areas ranging
from IT software to sound systems, from military armaments
to high-tech farming.
By
going into genomics, Singapore serves notice that
it wants to be a global high-tech innovator, not follower.
Local scientists have registered important patents
in the past decade with very little fanfare.
Foreign
scientists play a major role in the city's 13 research
institutes and centres.
They
have developed 670 new products and processes, spun
off 39 companies, done 1,600 joint projects with industry
and employs more than 2,000 research scientists and
engineers.
Consider
biotech scientist P.H. Leung. After 12 years he succeeded
in putting together a complicated compound of gold
and phosphorous, tested it on mice and found that
it stopped the growth of cancerous cells.
And
it did so without eating up bone marrow, which is
one of the major side effects of the main anti-cancer
drugs used on people, the National University of Singapore
(NUS) researcher discovered.
Next
he tried implanting human cancer cells into mice and
testing the drug again. It worked. The gold attached
itself to the amino acids in the cancer cells and
the cancer stopped spreading. Leung filed for patent.
Elsewhere
a 10-man team from NUS and Temasek Polytechnic has
developed a three-dimentional scafford, which will
allow doctors to grow replacement body parts such
as kneecaps and big joints. Patented.
Nine
years ago a Singaporean husband and wife team cloned
a gene of the horseshoe crab, an endangered species.
Then in 1995 they produced a genetically engineered
enzyme from the crabs blood in a controlled environment.
In
its natural form, this enzyme, Factor C, is used widely
to detect toxic shock and other disease-causing bacteria.
More
recently a team of Singapore scientists have discovered
a quick test for deadly viruses which may cause hand,
foot and mouth disease from a few weeks to a few days.
Published in the Journal of Virological Methods, their
discovery may lead to groundbreaking work on a DNA
vaccine to combat the viruses.
Meanwhile
foreign MNCs have so far invested close to S$3 billion
on biotech manufacturing here.
The
state's high-speed programme is touching many lives.
Singaporeans
from all walks of life - from ministers and industry
chiefs to policemen and teachers - will soon get a
crash course on the basics of life sciences.
One
of the first students to attend this short basic course,
run by NUS, was Philip Yeo himself. Others to attend
will include civil servants, judges, fund managers,
insurance agents and - yes, journalists.
To
give students an early start, primary schools plan
to begin teaching biology, while secondary schools
are doing more bio-projects. Teachers will be sent
overseas to work in top laboratories and biotech companies
during next year's school holidays to gain some research
exposure.
Deputy
Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan led a delegation to Sweden
and Denmark, two biotech hubs recently to look for
investment opportunities.
He
told reporters on his return: "The lesson for
us in Southeast Asia is that if we continue to try
and develop ourselves country by country, separated
from each other, then I think we're going to be the
loser in the long run."
Singapore
lacks the critical mass to succeed in this new growth
area and needs to link up with key players in other
parts of the world, Prime MInister Goh Chok Tong said
recently.
In
a high tech, global world where business grows rapidly,
Dr Tan said: "Economic growth is going to come
from regions, not from countries."
There
is a sense of urgency here because the region, from
Beijing to India, Seoul to Tokyo, is taking the same
route.
Taiwan, for example, has earmarked some US$900 million
for research and development and venture capital in
biotech. Many universities are setting up incubators
and research centres. J
apan,
a richer competitor, had a budget of US$18 billion
in the next five years for the same purpose. Biotech
parks are sprouting across the region. Among the most
ambitious is a US$84 million "Bio-Valley"
in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.
Like
the dot.com business, there is a big difference between
biotech research ideas and bottom line profits; one
does not always bring about the second.
What
about job opportunities? The numbers will not come
anywhere near the Internet or computer-related fields,
where some 8,000 university undergraduates graduate
with such degrees Still the industry needs more.
The
reason is that IT touches on every aspect of human
lives, so job opportunities remain high. But Life
Sciences do not need anything close to such statistics.
Employment
in the field here is expected to rise by 10 per cent
a year over the next decade at least. But, like Life
Sciences degree holders will talk not only about Singapore
- but the whole Asian region.
Seah
Chiang Nee
