Thermo Fisher Scientific Opens Its First Dry Powder Media Facility in APAC Region to Support Growing Biopharmaceutical Market

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, has announced it is expanding its global cell culture and bioprocessing capabilities by opening a new manufacturing plant in Singapore to produce dry powder media (DPM), a crucial cell culture raw material used to manufacture biologics, including vaccines, anti-cancer therapeutics, and others. The facility is the first-ever cell culture DPM production site in Singapore and is designed to address the increased global requirements from biopharmaceutical companies to mitigate critical raw material supply risks.

Located in Tuas, the 30,800 sq ft (2861 m2) facility will provide critical manufacturing redundancy of DPM to help ensure a secure and uninterrupted supply to biopharmaceutical customers globally. The facility will also serve as an additional logistics hub for DPM distribution to Asia Pacific customers. According to a recent BCC research report, the DPM market in Asia has been estimated to grow to US$220 million by 2016, representing a 20% compound annual growth rate, the highest in the world for media products.

“Asia continues to be our fastest-growing market and a central contributor to our growth,” said Greg Herrema, president of Biosciences at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Our new Singapore facility further strengthens our global presence, expands our manufacturing infrastructure and establishes local production capabilities to meet increased demand for biologic drug discovery and development in Asia.”

Featuring state-of-the-art pin milling technology, the new Singapore DPM facility is a cGMP manufacturing plant — mirroring the functionality and quality systems used in Thermo Fisher’s DPM facility in the US. The facility and equipment used are in compliance with 21 CFR 820 cGMP, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 13485:200 guidelines.

According to the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Singapore’s biopharmaceutical sector contributed about S$22.8 billion in output in 2011 and more than 6000 jobs. In particular, Singapore’s eight biologics manufacturing facilities have invested approximately S$2.4 billion, and employ more than 1700 people.

“Singapore is committed to the development of the supporting industry for biologics manufacturing, through local talent development as well as with specialised infrastructure such as cold chain logistics services,” said Thien Kwee Eng, Assistant Managing Director, Singapore EDB. “We strongly welcome Thermo Fisher’s DPM facility, which would further strengthen Singapore’s supporting ecosystem and position us as the leading biologics hub in Asia.”

“Congratulations to Thermo Fisher on the opening of their dry powder media manufacturing facility in Tuas,” said Dennis Tan, Director, Biomedical and Chemicals Cluster, JTC Corporation. “The establishment of this DPM facility affirms Singapore's attractiveness as a location for the biologics supply and manufacturing value chain, and is at the doorstep of our Tuas Biomedical Park, a world-class biopharmaceutical manufacturing hub.”