Yesterday, A-Bio announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to carry out process development and provide Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) clinical supplies for its pipeline of biopharmaceutical projects.
The Novo Nordisk deal follows a similar process development and clinical supply service agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK Bio) late last year. This initially covers one vaccine product, but may be extended to include multiple vaccines, according to A-Bio.
A-Bio was the first biologics CMO to be set up in Singapore, and it operates one of only a few such facilities in Asia. The award of this second contract suggests that CMOs in Europe and the US should be mindful of the emergence of competition from Asia in biologics, just as it has in the manufacturing of chemical-based drugs.
Dr George Wang, Managing Director of A-Bio, said: "Securing yet another international biopharmaceutical company as our long term partner is a substantial step towards strengthening our global customer base."
A-Bio's facility is located in Singapore Science Park II and when fully complete in 2006 will operate four manufacturing suites, each designed to house up to a 10,000L bioreactor. In addition, the facility will be designed to accommodate future expansion, according to the Singaporean company. At present it is focusing on supplying pilot scale material.
Sinagpore's biomedical sciences (BMS) industry is growing fast, with manufacturing output last year at S$15.8 billion (€7.5 billion), a 33.2 per cent increase over 2003. Pharmaceuticals contributed S$13.9 billion or 88 per cent of the total BMS manufacturing output.