Playing active roles in keeping communities safe amid pandemic

Temasek and its portfolio companies have played active roles in keeping communities safe amid the Covid-19 pandemic, both in Singapore and abroad.

In its annual review yesterday, the investment company highlighted its undertakings over the past year, in areas such as healthcare, logistics and pharmaceutical research.

Aside from its nationwide mask and hand sanitiser distribution exercises in Singapore, it also provided key donations of Covid-19 test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE) here and abroad.

To date, Temasek has donated 6,300 test kits, enabling more than one million diagnostic tests, to 40 countries in Asia and beyond.

Among its portfolio companies that have been active in the global Covid-19 fight is vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed a coronavirus shot in partnership with Pfizer. The vaccine has been deployed in many countries, including Singapore.

Temasek's portfolio companies in the Republic, such as PSA International and SingEx, have also played key roles amid the pandemic. Efforts included setting up a community care facility in Singapore Expo where Covid-19 patients were housed. The facility helped ease the strain on Singapore's healthcare facilities when local infections soared last year.

Another of its investees, D'Crypt, developed an automatic contact tracing device that supported national contact tracing efforts. More than 835,000 devices were deployed to residents and staff in migrant worker dormitories here.

Temasek chairman Lim Boon Heng said: "I was most encouraged by the public spirit of our people - they stepped forward and volunteered to help our communities keep safe and cope in these trying times. At the same time, they continued to pursue a full agenda advancing Temasek's role as an investor, institution and steward."

The company has been setting aside a portion of its returns above its risk-adjusted cost of capital for community gifts since 2003, it said. Some of the earmarked funds were used for its Covid-19 initiatives in areas such as testing and treatment.

It also facilitated a partnership between its social and charity arm Temasek Foundation, Singapore Airlines and the World Food Programme to sponsor 40 humanitarian flights last year.

These transported medicine, PPEs and other essential supplies abroad. The partnership was expanded this month to provide supplies to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and, potentially, other countries in the region.

Temasek said the humanitarian initiatives led by the foundation have been boosted by additional donations and support from its portfolio companies and other partners.

Several companies in its life sciences portfolio also pivoted last year to support Covid-19 efforts.

For example, Singapore-based biotech firm Tychan developed a candidate antibody for Covid-19 that is in final-stage trials. The antibody can potentially help patients recover faster, while slowing the progression of the infection.

Other companies worked on using artificial intelligence to identify existing drugs that could be repurposed or combined to treat Covid-19 at various stages of illness, Temasek said.