Singapore Budget 2016: Growing Singapore's biomedical R&D

SINGAPORE has a come a long way in building a vibrant research and development (R&D) landscape for the biomedical sector. In the last 15 years, we have successfully grown the nation's biomedical industry by attracting the world's leading biomedical companies and researchers into Singapore.

This has led to an increase in public-private partnerships where multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and local institutions have partnered in ground-breaking R&D projects. Domestically, A*Star has also overseen the steady growth of local biomedical research institutes and the nurturing of our next generation of scientists.

The Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan announced on Jan 8, 2016, has not only listed health and biomedical science as one of four key verticals but also allocated the highest budget spend of S$4 billion over the next five years. This has been largely applauded by the industry and demonstrates the government's strong c…