Biotech a growing sector in pandemic, with Acumen Diagnostics aiming to hire 30 people under training scheme

SINGAPORE - The rapid growth of the biotech sector during the pandemic is creating new jobs in the field with medical technology firm Acumen Diagnostics about to add to the headcount.

The company, which opened a Covid-19 clinical lab on Thursday (March 11), will take on 30 additional staff members as part of a new training initiative.

Acumen is joining forces with the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and Republic Polytechnic (RP) to start a course for medical technologists and molecular diagnostics manufacturing technologists.

The initiative will involve RP delivering the theoretical learning and Acumen providing on-the-job training and the subsequent job opportunities to trainees who successfully complete the programme.

Acumen Diagnostics, which employs 40 people, is a joint venture with Q&M Dental Group established in April last year.

It was formed from its predecessor company, Acumen Research Laboratories, a private medical tech company started 11 years ago by Dr Ong Siew Hwa, now chief executive and chief scientist of Acumen Diagnostics.

The new clinical lab officially opened on Thursday has actually been operating since December last year and has processed about 40,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for Covid-19.

These samples came from routine testing at six foreign workers dormitories, two regional screening centres and general practitioner clinics.

National Trades Union Congress secretary-general Ng Chee Meng told the opening ceremony: "The biomedical sciences arena is a sunrise sector, no doubt about it, with increasing manpower demand.

"It is Covid-19 that has impacted the world, the consciousness of Governments around the world, to prepare for future pandemic."

A new Covid-19 test kit developed by Acumen that is now under review by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) will also soon be launched.

The more efficient and cost-effective kit will help to double the number of PCR tests done each day at Acumen to around 3,000.

The first version of the test kit, named Acu-Corona, was developed in just three weeks early last year after round-the-clock efforts from the team and approved by the HSA last April, Dr Ong said.

The upcoming kit, named Acu-Corona Duplex, will combine the testing of the two genes into a single reaction.

Acumen's research and development (R&D) lab designed and developed the test kits but mass producing them was a challenge, Dr Ong noted, given the supply chain bottlenecks of raw materials at that time but a tie-up with local manufacturer Sunningdale helped escalate production greatly.

Manufacturing capacity was increased from around 10,000 tests a week in early 2020 to 200,000 or so a week for the lab's own use and export. Capacity can be ramped up to 500,000 tests a week if needed.

Around 500,000 Acumen test kits have also been exported to places like Malaysia and Indonesia.

Dr Ong told The Straits Times: "The pandemic also taught us how supply shortages could happen if we become too dependent on others, hence being self-sufficient will make the sector more resilient and prepared."

R&D efforts to make existing test kits faster and more sensitive are also underway, Dr Ong said, adding: "We are also developing the PCR test to help us detect the mutant or variant forms of the Covid-19 to keep up with the virus."

Acumen is not the only company improving its test kits. Home-grown biotech firm MiRXES, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital recently developed an update to the Fortitude PCR test series that can detect an additional gene of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

Acumen is also conducting research into infectious diseases and cancer.

One important area will be using PCR to determine the antibiotics profile of a bacteria in an infected patient. This will allow for a targeted use of medicines and reduce the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Research on possible dengue vaccines could also be on the horizon, Dr Ong said.

"Dengue is not a new virus but until now we still don't have vaccines. But we learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic that it is possible to get a functional vaccine within a year by harnessing new technologies, in this case the mRNA vaccine technology."