The Singapore model for biotech

BYLINE: Derrick Z. Jackson

ANDRE WAN and Sheo Rai smiled simultaneously, with a wry sense of victory. Wan is deputy executive director of the Biomedical Research Council of Singapore. Rai is communications director for biomedical sciences for the Economic Development Board of Singapore. I had just told them how Singapore was highlighted as one of the top "competitor states and foreign nations" at Governor Deval Patrick's announcement of his $1 billion life sciences initiative at BIO 2007.

The administration says one of the top "challenges" for the initiative is that "the United Kingdom, Ireland, China, and Singapore have developed coordinated strategies to attract researchers and companies."

"It's flattering because in reality we've been trying to emulate the United States," Wan said. "We get questions at this conference of how did we do it. People ask us, `What's your business model?' The thing is, we're not a business model. We've looked to Boston and the Bay Area for the innovation. You have a much longer history in achievement. We can only hope to acquire the knowledge.

"It's flattering for us to hear the governor of Massachusetts say these things about us. Five years ago, no one heard of us for biotech. We are one tiny dot on the planet."

The tiny dot is now a model. Singapore, a nation of 4.5 million people and about the square-mile equivalent of the Fitchburg-Leominster area, is a global technology powerhouse. In just seven years, it has exploded from its birth in biotech infrastructure to global influence in the biomedical sciences. Stem-cell researchers, Genentech, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis all have announced expansions or plant openings in Singapore in recent months.

According to the newsletter FierceBiotech, Singapore has for two years running been one of the world's top five regions for industry growth, right there with California. Patrick said Massachusetts would invest $1 billion over 10 years into the life sciences. That important step was almost universally welcomed by scientists and business leaders this week. But a year ago, Singapore announced a fresh $8 billion investment over five years.

"A lot of places plan their research and development in five-year blocks," Wan said. "Singapore plans for 10 to 15 years out."

With such energy, Singapore is the top-ranked nation in the Foreign Policy Globalization Index and second to the United States in the World Competitiveness Yearbook of the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development. The CIA World Factbook says Singapore's investments in the life sciences and medical industry "will continue efforts to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech hub."

Wan and Rai pointed out that one reason Singapore is so attractive is because of its emphasis on math and science and investments in public education at the earliest ages. In the 2003 Trends in International Math and Science Study of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Singapore was number one in the world in fourth-grade and eighth-grade math and fourth-grade and eighth-grade science.

While the Bush administration flatlines or slashes budgets for health research in the United States and cuts student loans, the Singapore government is in the middle of a program to fully fund 1,000 scientists to achieve their doctorates in Singapore and around the world by 2010. Rai said the average cost per student is about $660,000 in US dollars. About 700 students have been enrolled since 2001.

"You have to have a comprehensive education system," said Wan, a physician by training. "Yes, it is true that we were able to play on our strengths we already had in math. We had a good education system. But even with this comprehensive system, we realized that not a lot of students were choosing to do PhDs. They needed a boost. The credit goes to the government for realizing that to be competitive at the next level and to encourage bright minds to stay here, they had to provide the boost."

In announcing Massachusetts' $1 billion investment in life sciences, Patrick said he hopes the money will help close the federal funding gap and "bypass" the Bush administration's limits on stem-cell research. But the state-by-state approach supporting the science and industry that could save millions of lives seems pale in the face of Singapore.

"Singapore is a nation with no mineral resources, no agriculture to speak of," Rai said. "We realized that our natural resource was our people. To be in the global economy, we had to invest in people."

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.