Singapore Is One of the Fastest Growing Bioclusters in Asia; Wave of Investments in Drug Discovery and Translationa...(R&D center. PerkinElmer also opened its ...),Health

Homegrown Innovation Making Headway

In addition to investments by multi-national companies, Singapore's homegrown companies and research institutes are starting to garner global recognition for their innovative drug discoveries and research.

1. Merlion Pharmaceuticals made it to FierceBiotech's 2007 industry listing of biotechnology companies to watch worldwide. It is the first Asian company on the annual roll of top emerging companies since the inaugural awards in 2003. In December 2007, the company received the "Best Company in an Emerging Market" award at the annual Scrip awards in London. Merlion Pharmaceuticals also has a novel antibiotic drug, Finafloxacin, touted as the most powerful to date, which commenced clinical trials in September 2007.

2. S*Bio's lead candidate for cancer, SB939, was discovered in Singapore and entered clinical trials in 2007. SB939 is touted as a novel and best-in- class cancer therapy. In addition, S*Bio received orphan drug approval from FDA to conduct clinical trials for a drug that is designed to treat myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), a disease which if untreated can lead to cardiovascular diseases and leukemia.

3. The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has succeeded in developing an all-in-one rapid gene diagnosis device that enables polymerase chain reaction (PCR) gene detection within 17 minutes, which is radically faster than conventional laboratory methods. IBN is actively exploring commercialization opportunities for this highly promising product.

4. Veredus Laboratories collaborated with STMicroelectronics to commercialize a breakthrough molecular diagnostics lab-on-chip test kit - VereFluTM. This portable device, the size of a fingernail, allows for rapid detection of major influenza types within two hours instead of the weeks required using m
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