GSK to link with Singapore on strategic "roadmap"
This article was originally published in Scrip
GlaxoSmithKline's new CEO, Andrew Witty, is building on his ties to Singapore in unveiling a new initiative with the Asian city-state to identify opportunities in the healthcare sector.
The company is to work with the powerful Economic Development Board (EDB) to draw up a 10-year "strategic roadmap", which aims to identify areas where the partners can work together to develop new businesses and address other healthcare market and patient needs in Asia.
The initiative was announced during a recent visit by the chief executive, who was based in Singapore for five years until 2003 as GSK's senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region, during which time he was also member of the EDB's board.
Loh Zhi Wei of the EDB told Scrip that further details of potential joint projects were still being worked out. In an interview with Singapore's Business Times, Mr Witty suggested that these might involve technology platforms or environmental programmes related to manufacturing.
GSK is a long-standing major investor in Singapore, and its forerunner Beecham set up the first drug production facility there in 1972. The country has become one of GSK's largest manufacturing sites worldwide, aided by a range of attractive tax breaks and other incentives from the EDB, on top of other factors such as location and the availability of a skilled workforce.
AstraZeneca has just announced that it will work with two national facilities in Singapore to develop new drugs for liver cancer (Scrip Online, August 18th, 2008).