TODAYonline: Novartis To Open Manufacturing Plant Here
$1-billion boost for Biotech industry
Hot on Friday’s announcement by Norwegian company Renewable Energy Corp’s plans to build the world’s largest solar manufacturing complex worth $6.3 billion, Novartis AG yesterday said it will spend US$700 million ($1.02 billion) on a biotechnology manufacturing plant in Singapore.
Representing its largest investment in manufacturing capacity to date, the cell-culture production facility is expected to create about 300 jobs, Europe’s second-biggest drugmaker said. Basel-based Novartis will make so-called monoclonal antibodies used in treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, asthma and spinal cord injuries. Construction will begin next year and the plant is expected to start operations in 2012. “After a thorough selection process, we have chosen Singapore as the ideal location for our new biotech facility. Singapore is attractive because of its increasingly-strong biomedical cluster and its proximity to growth markets in Asia,” said Mr Tom Van Laar, Novartis Pharma head of global technical operations. The announcement was made at the opening of Novartis’ US$180-million pharmaceuticals plant here.
Expected to be fully operational by 2009, the plant will employ 160 people and make products including the Diovan heart drug and Tekturna for hypertension. Novartis has created an internal biotechnology unit, which will employ 250 people by the end of this year, chief executive officer Daniel Vasella told Swiss bi-weekly Finanz und Wirtschaft this month. In April, Novartis bought rights to Cytos Biotechnology AG’s experimental vaccine to fight nicotine addiction for 600 million Swiss francs ($750 million). — AGENCIES
