MSD's new investment here will put Singapore at the heart of its revamped global supply chain from where the US drugmaker will produce and distribute its latest innovative medicine and vaccines.

The new manufacturing facilities and investments in digitalisation and automation will enhance distribution capabilities, lowering the risk of supply disruptions, said Mr David Peacock, the Asia-Pacific President of MSD - a firm known as Merck & Co in the United States and Canada.

"When it comes to medicine, faltering supply chains are a real problem. If we can't get things through borders, if we can't move shipments, people can literally die," he told The Straits Times.

MSD on Wednesday announced the opening of a secondary packaging facility and also broke ground for a plant to produce new-generation inhaled medicine at its existing 29ha multi-product manufacturing hub in Tuas.

The new facilities are key components of the company's plan that was put in action in 2020 to invest US$500 million (S$712 million) in Singapore, creating more than 100 jobs requiring advanced manufacturing and digitalisation skills.

These investments are in addition to the US$2 billion invested by MSD in Singapore since the start of its manufacturing operations here in 1997.

Mr Peacock said the investment plan is aimed at shortening the supply chain of MSD's growing portfolio of innovative medicine and vaccines to treat and prevent cancer, heart ailments and infectious diseases for patients living in Singapore and beyond.

The new packaging facility will house a semi-automated, vial-packaging line to produce Keytruda, a drug that stimulates the immune response against certain types of cancers.

It will also have three fully automated syringe-packaging lines to produce the company's Gardasil 9, a vaccine that protects against certain strains of human papillomavirus that can cause cancer.

Mr Peacock said both Keytruda and Gardasil 9 are key drugs in MSD's cancer treatment and prevention portfolio.

When it is ready in 2026, the new inhaled medicine facility will manufacture next-generation inhaler devices for targeted administration of medicine for a heart disease called pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Clinical trials for the PAH drug are ongoing and, once approved, Singapore will be its first production site, Mr Peacock said.

MSD is also partnering with more than 75 other companies and organisations to study Keytruda in combination with other treatments. The Keytruda clinical development programme consists of more than 1,600 clinical trials across a wide variety of cancers and treatment settings.

In its infectious diseases portfolio, MSD is also working on a vaccine for the dengue virus, which is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infective mosquito.

Mr Peacock said many new treatments for different types of cancers using Keytruda are under development or in clinical trials.

Many governments are now also using or looking at vaccination programmes using Gardasil 9.

The demand outlook means MSD will continue to invest in these innovative drugs and their production and distribution facilities in Singapore.

"The demand, which will increase our production, will also increase exports from and jobs in Singapore," he said.

Governments worldwide are also coming to realise that investing in preventive healthcare, such as vaccination to prevent certain cancers, has economic benefits.

Mr Peacock said many studies have shown that a dollar invested in healthcare will give back four in economic benefits.

In addition, part of the new investment will go into new technology to further the company's environmental sustainability goals and the modernisation of MSD's information technology infrastructure in support of digitalising the facilities.

That means MSD will be looking to hire highly skilled talent in Singapore, he said.

"The launch of the new secondary packaging facility and ground-breaking for the new inhaler facility highlights the value that biopharmaceutical innovation brings to Singapore, contributing to the health and well-being of the nation and the region," Mr Peacock said.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.