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News & Trends - Pharmaceuticals

MSD expands investment in the Asia Pacific region

Health Industry Hub | October 10, 2022 |

Pharma News: MSD’s new investment in the Asia Pacific region aims to revamp its global supply chain from where the company will produce and distribute its latest innovative medicines and vaccines.

At the Opening of MSD’s two manufacturing facilities, Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, said “This S$280 million expansion is part of MSD’s five-year plan to invest S$700 million in Singapore. MSD’s investment will create over 200 local jobs, lifting its overall headcount here to more than 1,800.”

The first is a newly commissioned secondary packaging facility that will increase production of immunotherapy for cancer patients in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region. It will house a semi-automated vial-packaging line to produce Keytruda, MSD’s flagship PD-1 inhibitor, as well as three fully automated syringe-packaging lines to produce the company’s human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil 9 from next month.

Fernando Otero, Associate Vice President, MSD Manufacturing Division, Singapore, said “MSD sees the country as a strategic node in our company’s global manufacturing network with a focus on producing innovative medicines to treat chronic diseases and cancer as well as vaccines that prevent infectious diseases for patients living in Singapore and throughout the Asia Pacific region and beyond.”

Commenting on the World Health Organisation’s target to eliminate cervical cancer through the use of HPV vaccines, David Peacock, MSD’s President for Asia Pacific, said “As governments bring their plans into place now in terms of how they’re actually going to protect their populations, we’ll see the volumes continue to grow, so we’re building this not just based on our inherent demand but actually in anticipation of substantial future demand.”

These vaccines will then be supplied to the Asia-Pacific market, with some possibly going beyond Asia, he indicated.

The second is a new facility manufacturing next-generation inhaler devices for targeted administration of medicines and will be ready by 2026.

Minister Yong added “MSD’s new investments will inject a booster shot for our Manufacturing 2030 Vision, and support Singapore’s ambitions to become a leading biopharma manufacturing hub. MSD’s new secondary packaging facility can produce over 33 million vaccine units annually, and the inhaler production facility will be MSD’s sole drug product manufacturing site for its new pulmonary arterial hypertension medicines. With these new capabilities, MSD will be able to refresh its product offerings and meet demands for the growing Asian market, while improving the health of Singaporeans and people across the globe.”

Noting that this is one of MSD’s largest facilities outside the United States, Chief Executive and President of MSD, Robert Davis, said the company continues to be “very committed” to Singapore.

“The reason we are going back to when we came to Singapore is what Singapore offers. World-class workforce, a political environment with a government that understands the value of partnership, R&D and technological capabilities that allowed us to really grow the business and hopefully continue to make an impact in the world,” Mr Davis said at the launch ceremony.


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