AGE FUELS MPE PIONEER Choy Kem Wah's desire to help start-ups in the emerging life sciences industry. He has done that thrice over the past two decades. Shortly after graduation, he joined Becton Dickinson, a United States start-up that produces medical disposable devices. In 1996, he moved to another United States start-up, Applied Biosystems that makes life sciences instrumentation systems in Singapore. He grew the business to include research and development and distribution services. In 2005, he joined Affymetrix, a start-up which deals with DNA gene chip manufacturing. Currently the general manager, Kem Wah said, “I enjoy the challenge of setting up companies in the life sciences sector.” Fortunately, he had help from a talented team of like-minded individuals to start the 24/7 operations from scratch. “My role is to ensure excellence in quality, manufacturing, regional procurement, supply chain and continual expansion.”

The life sciences industry uses Affymetrix's technology as an industry-standard tool to analyse complex genetic information. This tool is used by pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology companies and research institutes. Kem Wah read widely and took short courses at NUS and Ngee Ann Polytechnic to better understand the biomedical industry. His enthusiasm rubbed off on fellow pioneer Samuel Tang who joined his firm. Samuel said, “I was happy to make the milestone foray into the world of DNA.”

There are three NTI pioneers in the life sciences industry — Kem Wah, Samuel and Phuah Soon Ek. They contribute to a promising industry that can become an economic growth engine. Singapore aims to be the centre for drug discovery and basic and clinical research. Biology and medicine are central to the life sciences. For three years, Soon Ek was involved in the production of drugs, tablets, dry powder inhalers, sterile injectables and nasal sprays. He is with Schering-Plough, a global powerhouse in the pharmaceutical field.

A big investor in Singapore, Schering-Plough pumped in some one billion dollars and set up seven manufacturing plants. Soon Ek works with the process engineers to come up with a conceptual design. “My mechanical engineering background and project experience come in handy,” he said. He builds manufacturing units with new equipment and auxiliaries.