The National University of Singapore (NUS)
launched the NUS Initiative to Improve Health in Asia (NIHA).
NIHA
seeks to contribute towards public healthcare policy formulation and health
systems development in Asia. The initiative is being coordinated by the NUS
Global Asia Institute (NUS-GAI) in collaboration with the Lee Kuan Yew School
of Public Policy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and the NUS Business School.
In
September 2011, the government announced that it would increase funding for
healthcare to meet the demands of an aging population. With this the country's
healthcare expenditure is likely to exceed the current four percent of GDP.
Similarly, to promote the growth of the clinical research activities, the
government announced the launch of Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ)
program with an investment of $4.9 million.
According
to reports, the government is also looking at including more drugs to its
standard drug list. Currently, the list comprises 1,000 drugs that are
considered cost effective. The MoH is in discussion with doctors for additions
in the list's yearly review.
The
medical device industry of the country has grown at a consistent pace and stood
at $357 million in 2011. In conjunction with R&D, medical technology is
another sector on which Singapore is leveraging its potential. EDB is running
Medtech IDEAS (Innovate, Design, Engineer for Asia in Singapore) programme to
train multidisciplinary teams of engineers, specialists, and regulatory experts
in companies' global and Singapore-based R&D facilities. Also, the country
has formed Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Programme, designed to meet the medtech
industry's need for Asian medical device innovators who are familiar with the
medtech innovation process as well as Asia's healthcare needs.
Industry
size
According
to Business Monitor International (BMI) report, Singapore pharmaceutical market
touched $716 million in 2011 and is expected to reach $729 million by 2012.
Similarly, the healthcare market for the island nation is estimated to see a
growth of 1.5 percent in 2012 from $9.06 billion in 2011. However, medical
devices market is likely to remain flat at $357 million in 2012. BMI noted that
the healthcare expenditure of Singapore in 2011 stood at $9.06 billion which is
estimated to grow marginally to $9.19 billion in 2012. Similarly, Espicom has
placed Singapore's medical device market at $355 million in 2011, similar to
that of the Philippines and Slovenia.
According
EDB, the biomedical sciences industry contributed about five percent of
Singapore's GDP growth in 2011. The manufacturing output grew from $18.2
billion in 2010 to $21.5 billion in 2011. The biomedical industry is also a
significant value-added contributor, adding $10.3 billion in value-add in 2011
compared to $8.1 billion in 2010.
The
biopharmaceutical industry has expanded by more than 30 percent, creating 6,000
jobs in Singapore. The medtech industry also maintained a consistent growth and
the manufacturing output in this sector was of $3.4 billion that expanded by 12
percent in 2011. EDB notes that medtech companies provide about 9,000 jobs,
accounting for over 60 percent of the total jobs in the biomedical sciences
cluster.
Singapore
continues to remain a popular destination as companies use it as a trading base
for the region. The government incentives such as low corporate tax rates and
strong intellectual property laws encourage multinational pharmaceutical
companies to locate their operations in this island nation.
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