Sigma-Aldrich Corporation opened its Asia Pacific headquarters and state-of-the-art cell culture technical center in Singapore located at Biopolis Research Park.

“Our new technical center will significantly enhance our ability to support our customers in the region more quickly and effectively by providing local technical solutions that are customized to meet their needs,” said Jason Apter, vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific, Sigma-Aldrich. “We are partnering with biopharmaceutical companies that are looking to increase the efficiency of their R&D efforts, working with them to reduce the time-to-market, cost and risk in developing both new drugs and generic versions of existing drugs.”

The facility brings existing commercial offices and production laboratories in Singapore into a single location, together with the new cell culture technical center. The technical center will primarily support the customers of the company’s SAFC commercial business in biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing.

The cell culture technical center is designed to address a wide range of needs of customers in the Asia region, ranging from development projects, product support, trouble-shooting and application issues. Initially, the technical center will provide: Cell culture media development and optimization services for customers engaged in biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing; and pre-clinical media manufacturing through the imMEDIAte Advantage service, which provides the ability to custom produce non-cGMP batches of material and subsequent modifications thereby speeding development and accelerating time-to-market.

“The development and manufacturing of biologics, whether innovative new products or generic versions of existing drugs (biosimilars), continues to be an attractive area of growth as our customers continue pushing the boundaries of science and advancing their ability to treat and cure disease,” said Apter.

To further strengthen its presence in Asia Pacific and to better support customers in the biopharmaceutical industry, Sigma-Aldrich has also announced plans to construct its own cGMP distribution center in Tuas. Expected to open at the end of this year, the distribution center will enable Sigma-Aldrich to provide end-to-end services to its customers and distributors in Singapore and across South East Asia (SEA).

This will be the company’s first fully-owned distribution center in SEA and will enhance its ability to provide supply chain security and service to customers in the region. Created with an ‘In Asia for Asia’ objective, the cGMP certified distribution center will support strategic partnerships with customers in the region, enabling them to meet the increasingly stringent regulatory requirements for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Kevin Lai, executive director of biomedical sciences and consumer businesses of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said, “Today, the fact that 9 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies have a presence in Singapore across manufacturing, headquarters and R&D operations is testimony to the continued growth of our pharmaceutical industry.”

Gilles Cottier, executive vice president and president of SAFC commercial, said, “The choice of Singapore as Sigma-Aldrich’s regional headquarters was an obvious one, given the country’s strategic location, strong economy, political stability and world-class infrastructure.

“Sigma-Aldrich is recognized as a leading global supplier to the biopharmaceutical industry. Our investments in Singapore play a crucial role in our strategy to better serve our regional customers and global players expanding into Asia. The country’s rapidly expanding biomedical ecosystem provides Sigma-Aldrich with access to talent and resources in an attractive and robust business environment like Singapore,” said Cottier.