Home to a growing number of leading biomedical companies and world-class research institutions, Singapore is fast becoming one of the most exciting hubs for biomedical sciences in Asia.

Singapore's goal is to develop biomedical sciences to achieve the same level of success as the other three pillars of the industry - electronics, chemicals and engineering. The initial phase of Singapore’s biomedical sciences initiative has shown spectacular progress. The Biomedical Sciences sector contributes about 2.3% of Singapore's GDP today. It employs more than 10,000 individuals and makes up S$24 billion of the total manufacturing output. That’s 10% of total manufacturing output and 23% of manufacturing value-added.

We aim to achieve S$25 billion in manufacturing output for the biomedical sciences sector by 2015 with an employment of 15,000.

Biopolis is an integrated 7-building biomedical research complex housing R&D operations of private biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the five biomedical research institutes under Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Biomedical Research Council (A*STAR BMRC). This is where key cutting-edge research is developed in Singapore. Each of the five A*STAR BMRC research institutes builds core capabilities in niche research areas such as genomics, cell and molecular biology, bio-processing, bio-informatics and bio-engineering.

Now, Singapore's biomedical sciences initiative has moved into Phase II which is to build up our focus in developing translational and clinical research - to bring discoveries from the bench to the bedside. More than S$1.4 billion will be committed by the Government in the next 5 years towards building up our capabilities in these areas, in order to sustain the biomedical sciences sector's robust growth in the next decade.

Click here to get the full story on Singapore's Biomedical Sciences initiative.

Other Websites:

• Singapore – The Biopolis of Asia
• Singapore – The Biopolis of Asia (Careers in Singapore)
• National Research Foundation