Novartis recently broke ground on a $500 million bio-manufacturing facility in Singapore. The company has integrated its presence in that city-state, consolidating its offices into a single campus and strengthening ties among its facilities there. To find out more about Novartis’ new facility, its history with Singapore, and how it looks at the Asian market, we spoke to Christopher Snook, head of Group Country Management for Novartis, and Kevin Lai, director of Singapore EDB’s Biomedical Sciences Division. —GYR

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Contract Pharma: How extensive is Novartis’ presence in Singapore?
Chris Snook: The biologics facility that we broke ground on will be Novartis’ fourth site in Singapore. We have an established presence there, with a tableting facility, a medical device (contact lens) manufacturing facility, and an Alcon facility already in place. That last one handles sterile liquids and goes into commercial production later this year.

The biotech facility will be built adjacent to our existing pharmaceutical site. It’s a $500 million investment, the biggest one we’ve made in Singapore so far. I think I’m right in saying it’s the biggest biotechnology investment made by our industry peer group. We’re very excited about the project. We broke ground earlier this year, construction is already underway, and we’re expecting the facility to be operational by 2016.

CP: Why Singapore?
CS: There’s a whole basket of criteria that we consider before we start building a facility like this one, but to be honest with you, Singapore delivers on a good number of important ones. Not least among them is the availability of well-educated and well-trained talent. We know that there’s competition for that talent in Singapore, but it’s a very forward-thinking place in terms of understanding the needs of biotech companies like Novartis. They started the process of up-skilling their workforce years before. In fact, before the first biotech companies arrived there, Singapore had placed people with companies overseas to learn those skills.

It’s a very safe and well-regulated environment in which we can operate. From an IP point of view, we’re very comfortable having the size of presence that we do in Singapore. It satisfies many of our criteria, especially geographically, as it can serve as a hub for the rest of Asia. That’s a place of huge strategic importance, of course.

CP: Is the facility intended for Asian supply?
CS: No, it’s intended to be part of our global supply network. It’ll be producing pharmaceutical substance in the areas of autoimmune, respiratory and oncology. Those are three of Novartis’ strategic areas of focus.

CP: How important are biologics to Novartis’ growth plans?
CS: Biologics account for 25% of our development pipeline. We imagine that will continue to increase. That’s why the facility in Singapore is designed to accommodate the volume requirements that we anticipate going forward, if the pipeline delivers.
The platform for the production process is mammalian cell culture.

The production area is designed to lean principles and a mix of new disposable technology and stainless steel vessels; equipment modules allowing high degree of repetition on design and automation.

Multiple commercial scale bioreactors with the adjacent seed train and the corresponding purification lines will be designed and installed.  The purification lines are constructed in a flexible way to combine the purification steps in the order as needed for specific therapeutic proteins.

With that equipment, the plant will produce material for clinical trials of the Novartis biopharmaceutical pipeline in the same scale as it is expected for the commercial production.

CP: Will the site also support Sandoz operations for biosimilars?
CS: That’s quite possible, but no final decision has been made on that. The uses of the site are in a state of constant evolution and will be a lot clearer as we come closer to the completion of this project.

CP: Are there plans to do contract manufacturing out of the new facility?
CS: The facility’s being built in anticipation of our own requirements, so that’s not part of the plan right now.

CP: How significant is Asia for Novartis?
CS: All our industry peers are looking to emerging markets for growth and Asia is one of the most dynamic of them. So we’re not alone in this regard. There’s a very strong focus on building our presence in Asia. We’re very well represented already, but our projections going forward see growth coming from Asia, as well as Latin America and parts of eastern Europe. We know we have to scale up both our manufacturing presence and our commercial presence in these regions, if we’re to fully capitalize on the growth we know is available in those geographies.

CP: How does Singapore serve as a hub for the region?
CS: Almost all of our regional commercial headquarters are located in one office in Singapore. Two years ago, we co-located what had been a very fragmented presence in Singapore into a single office campus, bringing all of our commercial operations together. In total, there are more than 350 people there, managing regional (Asian) and local (Singaporean) markets.

CP: Was that fragmentation due to Novartis’ acquisitions or was it more a result of ad hoc expansion in Singapore?
CS: It reflected that we’d been gradually scaling up our presence in the region and in Singapore, and it wasn’t possible to bring everyone into the same building. At one point, we were in eight different buildings and on multiple floors within them. There was no real sense of association among Novartis staff, and no sense of the size of the organization that they were part of. We really only got that when we moved everyone to the same campus.

We’re much better able to manage the talent pool now, as well as facilitating cross-divisional moves of talent. That’s something we encourage, to help with individual career development needs.

CP: What role do Singapore and Asia play in R&D and drug development for Novartis?
CS: We do have a research facility in Singapore, the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. It’s a joint venture with Novartis and the Economic Development Board. It started a little more than 10 years ago and was renewed for another five years recently. The facility has around 120 scientists and is focused on neglected diseases, like resistant forms of tuberculosis, dengue fever and malaria. The reason we set up in Singapore to study those diseases is because they’re most prevalent in Asia. It makes sense for us to have a research center in a place like that.

What’s very exciting about the institute is that we’ve got two proof-of-concepts in the clinic. Both are malaria compounds and they’re showing very promising data.

CP: How does managing Asian operations differ from managing in established markets?
CS: Every market in Asia has a different set of challenges. I’ve worked for more than 25 years in countries in Asia, Singapore included.

CP: Twenty-five years? Wow! How’d you get started so early?
CS: I first visited Asia in late 80’s, but my first assignment there was with Roche as part of their China pharmaceutical JV start-up team. After one year traveling to Shanghai (on a weekly basis) from Hong Kong, I moved to Shanghai in 1994 and was there for three years. I then took a Region Head position for Middle East & Africa, also with Roche (based in Dubai) before joining Novartis in 2000. This assignment was based in Singapore, where I served as Region Head Vitamins, shortly after I was moved to Japan as General Manager Consumer Health Division. I was in Tokyo for three years before taking the Region Head position for Novartis Consumer Health and relocating back to Singapore. I was in that role for five years before moving back to Switzerland in 2008.

CP: I hope you had a good frequent flyer program!
CS: [laughs] That means I’ve been able to see the dynamics firsthand, in terms of the differences from country to country.

CP: What have you seen?
CS: These are very fast developing, very fast markets. What that demands of companies like Novartis is being quick on one’s feet, being adaptable and flexible, and modifying your approach to doing business based on cultural differences. So you need a completely open mind and a willingness to adapt very quickly.

CP: What have been the biggest changes in the region that would lead to such massive investment by Novartis and some of its peers?
CS: As the established markets in the U.S. and the EU have flattened, we’ve all had to look at other geographies around the globe that show more promising growth trajectories. The macroeconomic situation in Asia is such that we want to build a successful presence in countries like China and India, and Singapore is extremely well placed to allow us to do that.

It’s important to note the scale of Novartis’ presence in Singapore. With the completion of this facility, we’ll have more than 1,500 Novartis associates based in Singapore, at four factories, one research establishment, and commercial headquarters. With total investments in excess of $1.2 billion, I think it’s fair to say that Novartis has aligned itself strategically with Singapore and its EDB. We’re very happy about the strength of the association that we have with Singapore and we look forward to continuing it. 

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Biographical Note
Christopher Snook serves as head of Group Country Management for Novartis International AG. In addition he is the Novartis Country President for Singapore. In this role, he is responsible for driving global corporate objectives in all Novartis Country organizations and ensuring full corporate governance across all Novartis legal entities.

Mr. Snook joined Novartis in 2000, first serving as region head of Novartis’ Asia Pacific, VMS operations. Soon after joining Novartis in Singapore he relocated to Tokyo to become general manager, Japan and South Korea for the Novartis Consumer Health Division, overseeing its three Business Units: Medical Nutrition, Infant & Baby and OTC. In 2003, he moved back to Singapore as head of OTC Asia Pacific Region, and then in 2007 assumed operational responsibility for the newly created Middle East/Africa & South Eastern Europe Region based in Dubai.

He has more than 30 years’ experience in the pharma industry, beginning his career as a medical representative in the UK, and later as export manager for Roche. In 1992 he moved to Basel, to establish the OTC Business Unit within Roche’s Pharma International Division. His experience at Roche also included leadership positions in Asia, among these, heading up the Roche OTC Division in China.