The newest drug, which is designed to block the human immunodeficiency virus from multiplying, is being tested at a new Pfizer research centre at the Raffles Hospital, which was officially opened on Tuesday.

The centre is the latest feather in the cap for Singapore's medical research sector, which has seen spending almost triple since 2000.

The Bugis centre opens at a time when pharmaceutical companies are increasingly eyeing Asia as the place to test their drugs on humans for the first time.

Speaking at the opening, the company's chairman and chief executive, Mr Jeffrey Kindler, said Singapore has become an important centre for research into diseases like Aids.

'Today, thousands of people around the world have hope because of the results we found here.'

Traditionally, American and European drug companies first test their drugs in the West, before trying to replicate the data in Asian patients.

Now there is growing interest in conducting such 'first in human' clinical trials in Asia, thanks to the region's burgeoning markets and ethnic diversity. Pfizer was the first Western pharmaceutical firm to do this, said Mr Kindler.

Its clinical research unit here was set up in 2000, at the Singapore General Hospital. So far, about 10 drugs on the market have undergone trials in Singapore, including the famed erectile dysfunction drug Viagra and the treatment for Aids.

Since the unit's move to the Raffles Hospital, researchers have been able to conduct up to eight trials at a time.

'We hope to hold 15 to 20 at a time by the end of the year,' said the unit's medical director, Dr Anthony Rebuck.

The company's two other clinical research units are in the United States and Belgium.

Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.