Singaporean Drug Manufacturing Performance Disappoints

Official data indicates that Singapore's drug manufacturing sector went into a sharp decline in February 2005, despite widespread confidence in the industry and expectations that it would continue the strong growth seen in recent years. The results indicate that the sector remains volatile, as evidenced by strong growth in 2004, followed by an 11% decline in January and February's 63.6% plunge in production.

Singapore's government has attributed February's apparent decline in output to fewer working days in the month because of the Lunar New Year holiday season, as well as changes to product lines and the rescheduling of production for some drugs to later in the year.

The disappointing results are unlikely to deter either Singaporean authorities or leading multinational drug manufacturers from boosting activity in the sector. Swiss drug major Novartis has announced a new US$180mn facility, due to begin production in 2008, and GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer are also among the multinationals recently announcing expansions to existing operations in Singapore.

Following the approval of tough data protection laws last year, the government is energetically promoting the city-state as Asia's leading centre for biotech, and a recently launched healthcare centre known as Biopolis has already attracted SGD849mn (US$514.36mn) in fresh investment from biomedical manufacturers.