ANOTHER 100 jobs will be on offer here next year at a new US$500 million (S$701 million) biologics plant set up by Swiss drug giant Roche, which officially opened on Tuesday.
The commercial-scale manufacturing plant is one of six being built which will create more than 1,000 jobs in the sector here.
With the six plants on track, Singapore is shaping up to be a fledgling biologics manufacturing hub, having bagged about US$2 billion worth of investments in this field in the last four years.
The 12.6ha plant in Tuas is part of a fast-growing, cutting- edge industry. Biologics is the science of using living cells for direct therapy in the body, or for making drugs such as vaccines and antibiotics.
Roche Singapore Technical Operations, a wholly owned unit of Roche, currently employs 330 highly skilled workers at the plant. Most of them are Singaporeans. The facility is looking to hire another 100 skilled workers such as biotechnologists, quality analysts and manufacturing engineers.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the companies' investment here was a strong endorsement of the foundation that has been laid, using the strengths of both the firms and Singapore.
jessicaj@sph.com.sg
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
