Singapore

A HUMAN blood plasma fractionation plant that filters out proteins has been set up in Singapore, paving the way for emergency medicines used to treat immunodeficiency and haemophilia to be commercially available here from as early as next January. This is the first such plant to be set up in South-east Asia. Singapore-based biotech firm PrIME Biologics Pte Ltd is installing the new plant in its certified facility at Science Park II, where it will manufacture emergency drugs starting with albumin and immunoglobulin. Albumin, which is currently the most demanded protein in China, is used to treat shock and burns, and used in normal surgery, while immunoglobulin is given to patients with compromised immunity systems. The new plant will use a patented technology called preparative isolation by membrane electrophoresis (PrIME), pioneered by the company.

Hari Nair, PrIME Biologics' executive chairman, said the new technology is "smaller, safer, faster and cheaper" compared to the conventional way of processing plasma. The existing technology is called chromatography, which Dr Nair likens to "micro marbles in a column". It takes about five days to filter out a particular protein from the plasma and the yield from one litre of plasma is at the most 50 to 60 per cent. But the new disruptive technology can almost double the yield to 90 per cent in just 18 hours. "We have a special membrane which is only produced by us, and you can move one protein from 3,000 proteins in very quick time. This is the first time this technology is used anywhere in the world and we have done it in Singapore," said Dr Nair. He explained that bigger medical technology companies such as Baxter and CSL Limited require at any given time 5,000 to 10,000 litres of plasma for every batch that is processed.