Novartis to invest in Singapore MAb plant

Along with announcing the official opening of its new $180.0-million pharmaceutical plant in Singapore, Swiss drug major Novartis said that it will also invest some $700.0 million on a new biotechnology facility in the Island State, which will make monoclonal antibodies that are used in drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, asthma and spinal cord injuries. It expects the MAb facility to be operational in 2012.

The newly-opened plant is projected to be fully operational by 2009, when it will employ about 160 people and manufacture several of Novartis' products, including its blockbuster heart drug Diovan (valsartan), which generated revenues for the group of $3.7 billion in the first nine months of this year.

Novartis' new tabletting facility joins the rapidly-growing cluster of 25 pharmaceutical and biologicals, manufacturing facilities in Singapore, all of which produce for the global market, reports The Straits Times. The newspaper adds that, in 2006, Singapore's biomedical sciences manufacturing output reached S$23.0 billion ($15.68 billion), growing at an unprecedented 30% over the previous year.