Increasing the company's late phase capacity, the plant will play a vital role in converting drug discoveries into commercial production.
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Dr Moncef Slaoui, Chairman, R&D, GlaxoSmithKline (left) with S Iswaran, Minister of State for Trade and Industry.
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It was in 1972 that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) first arrived on Singapore's shores with the establishment of Beecham Pharmaceuticals' manufacturing operations. One of the world's top research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, GSK has since established its presence here with a suite of activities that span the value chain from drug discovery and clinical research to manufacturing and regional headquarters operations.
The company recently expanded its Singapore operations with a new S$116 million (US$83.7 million) Asia - that will allow it to move from traditional manufacturing excellence to manufacturing innovation. This brings GSK's total investment in Singapore to a whopping S$1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) to date.
"This level of investment is testament to GSK's confidence in Singapore's ability to deliver on its promises. This country has much to offer companies like GSK," says Dr Moncef Slaoui, Chairman, R&D, GlaxoSmithKline. Some of the city-state's strengths he highlighted include diversity of talent, business-friendly policies as well as a robust intellectual property protection framework that supports innovation, R&D and the manufacturing of proprietary products. "Singapore has an excellent infrastructure to ensure operational efficiency and reduce time to market with connectivity to major markets around the world," he adds.
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"Singapore has an excellent infrastructure to ensure operational efficiency and reduce time to market with connectivity to major markets around the world."
- Dr Moncef Slaoui, Chairman, R&D, GlaxoSmithKline
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Moving Forward With R&D
Located in Jurong, the state-of-the-art facility is an important cog in the company's plans to remain at the forefront of the pharmaceuticals industry. "Singapore stands as one of the company's strategic global manufacturing and supply sites and will play a prominent role in helping to achieve GSK's aim to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer," says Dr Dermot Moynihan, Senior Vice President, Chemical Development World-Wide, GlaxoSmithKline.
The plant joins GSK's Chemical Development global network as its sixth and newest pilot plant built to accommodate a pipeline of new chemical entities that R&D pilot plant - its first and only such facility in are in their final phase of development. This involves new process development, process scale-up and eventually process optimisation to handle large-scale drug production. By co-locating the pilot plant with its manufacturing facility, GSK is looking to enhance its capability to streamline and accelerate the delivery of new medicines to patients.
In addition, the plant is equipped with the latest Process Analytical Technology that facilitates on-line testing. This technology, coupled with high levels of automation, will enable GSK scientists to observe the Singapore plant processes in real-time. In effect, the plant will significantly reduce the need for scientists to travel on-site and increase the productivity of SK's R&D activities.
This R&D pilot plant team comprises 45 scientists and technicians from the US, UK and Singapore.
Value Proposition
GSK is one of an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies putting great stock in manufacturing innovation. For these companies, Singapore remains the destination of choice for such high value manufacturing investments. In fact, the local biomedical sciences manufacturing output reached a high of S$24 billion (US$17.3 billion) last year.
"Singapore recognises that manufacturing innovation is the critical link that enables drugs 'discovered in Singapore' to quickly transition to drugs 'manufactured in Singapore'," says S Iswaran, Minister of State for Trade and Industry. He adds that GSK, with its comprehensive value chain of activities in Singapore, is set to benefit from "synergies between upstream R&D, manufacturing process development, and commercial-scale manufacturing, to yield quantum leaps in process efficiency."
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