Slow Growth Expected for Singaporean Drug Sector in 2005

Singaporean officials have forecast that growth in the country's drug sector production is likely to be minimal this year. The well-developed local manufacturing sector, mainly comprised of subsidiaries of the major research-based companies, is facing increasing competition from generic drugmakers in markets such as China, India and South Korea. Nevertheless, the government has set a target value for the local drug industry of SGD25bn (US$13.37bn) by 2015, compared to the SGD15.8bn (US$9.78bn) reported for 2004.

Despite the threat to Singapore's export markets from generic variants of multinational sector drugs, the tightly regulated local sector has seen significant investment in recent years and the country is expected to cement its position as a regional, if not global, manufacturing and R&D centre in the short term. Sanofi-aventis, GSK, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer and Schering-Plough all operate manufacturing facilities in Singapore, and the government has launched a major new biomedical research and development (R&D) centre called Biopolis.