Singapore dazzles as a world leader in medical manufacturing

Article was first published on 13 April 2018 and subsequently updated on 20 May 2021

• The city-state’s skilled talent, developed infrastructure, and technological advantages have led many Western MedTech companies to establish their presence here, including Medtronic and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
• From contact-lens production lines to medical instruments, Singapore’s MedTech manufacturing output reached over S$15 billion in 2020.
  
  

Asia-Pacific’s medical technology (MedTech) sector is immense. By 2023, McKinsey expects it to hit US$137 billion (S$184 billion) in size, growing from an already massive US$95 billion in 2017 to become the second-largest MedTech market in the world.

Numerous factors account for the accelerated growth: An ageing (and massive) population – Asia Pacific is home to more than half the world’s population – with greater access to healthcare, combined with a medical industry that’s undergoing rapid modernisation.

For western MedTech manufacturers, expanding into the Asian market can be daunting as there are significant differences between the medical worlds in Asia and the West. Hospitals and doctors operate differently here than they do in Europe or North America and patients tend to present distinct conditions that require different means of treatment. It may take years for a Western MedTech firm to sufficiently understand the intricacies of this region to succeed.

It’s those differences – and Singapore’s talent, infrastructure, and technological advantages – that have led numerous Western firms to establish its presence in the city-state, which has an outsized influence on the region’s MedTech industry.

From contact-lens production lines to medical instruments, Singapore’s MedTech manufacturing output reached over S$15 billion in 2020.

In the last decade, many MedTech manufacturing firms have moved to Singapore. For example, medical device firm Medtronic chose Singapore as the location for its first Asian plant, where it produces state-of-the-art cardiac devices. “Our partnership with Singapore began many years ago, and the diversity of opportunities within Singapore and Asia Pacific makes this region a critical part of our global strategy,” adds Dr Hsien-Hsien Lei¹, the former Vice President for Communications and value-based healthcare for Medtronic’s APAC region.

“We opened the Medtronic Singapore Operations (MSO) to ensure that our manufacturing capabilities can better address the growing epidemic of cardiovascular diseases in Asia Pacific, and meet the increasing demand for cardiac devices,” adds Dr Lei. “MSO also serves as Medtronic’s distribution hub for cardiac devices in the Asia Pacific region. As a leading biomedical sciences hub and regional logistics hub, Singapore helps Medtronic deliver meaningful innovation and technology to patients in the region and globally.”

Dr Lei adds that “Medtronic and Singapore share similar goals,” and calls out Singapore’s trusted manufacturing base for complex and high-quality medical devices, its innovative ecosystem that promotes the development of new technology, and its stable and trained workforce.

Singapore is making significant investments in advanced manufacturing technologies to ensure it remains a hub for the world’s leading MedTech manufacturers well into the future.

This is vital because manufacturing is rapidly transforming, driven by advanced technology that’s directly impacting the manufacturing floor. The city-state has launched key technology initiatives designed to enhance the state of the art in 3D printing, robotics, and the industrial internet of things (IIoT). For example, it has allocated S$25 billion through 2025 under the national Research, Innovation and Enterprise plan which highlighted manufacturing, trade and connectivity as key domains.

The country’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) offers masterclasses and workshops on the latest manufacturing tech, and its model factories at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre draw partners from around the world, including MedTech giant Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Singapore is also investing in partnerships between original equipment manufacturers and suppliers of automation and advanced manufacturing technologies. The Partnerships for Capability Transformation programme was introduced to encourage partnerships between foreign corporations and local suppliers by aiding with knowledge transfer, upgrading supplier capabilities, and developing collaborative processes.

Five of the world’s top 10 Electronic Manufacturing Service companies based in Singapore undertake activities across the entire value chain, from design to mass production. Directly supporting this value chain and the medical manufacturers are more than 2,700 precision engineering companies with advanced capabilities in product design, component creation, and even high-tech packaging.

All of this adds up to a concentration of services that fully support MedTech manufacturing. Says Mr Shastri, "Thermo Fisher employs a ‘hub-and-spoke’ strategy where Singapore-based design firms, universities, and research institutions play significant roles in supporting the development of our instrument platforms. Key partners include the publicly funded research institutions at A*STAR, universities and academic centres. Our projects cover a wide range of MedTech areas including synthetic biology tools, cancer biomarkers, and cell line optimisation for drug production," adds Mr Shastri.

Companies cite Singapore's business-friendly environment, strong intellectual property protection laws, and English-speaking workforce as key to helping them accelerate and optimise operations – making it easier to bring new products to the Asian market.

"Singapore is a strategic business hub for the region, and it enables Medtronic to fully leverage the developed infrastructure, world-class healthcare systems, technology advancements, open business policies, and skilled workforce to deliver its expertise and innovation – and scale them to other markets in the region," adds Dr Lei.

The Centre of Regulatory Excellence (CoRE), a professional organisation that’s part of the Duke-NUS Medical School, serves the needs of the biomedical industry by enhancing collaboration between academia, industry, and regulatory agencies. It’s among the efforts that have helped to make Singapore a desired location for MedTech businesses.

^[1] Dr Hsien-Hsien Lei has moved on from Medtronic and is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. Her comments for this article were shared in 2018 and still hold true.