SINGAPORE - PerkinElmer, a leading American medtech company, opened its newest life science lab instruments and diagnostics manufacturing facility at the JTC MedTech Hub in Jurong on Thursday (May 2).
The Singapore facility is the company's largest instrument manufacturing facility globally.
"Opening this new site in JTC MedTech Hub reaffirms PerkinElmer's commitment to operating our business and growing our customer base here in Singapore and throughout South-east Asia," said Mr Robert Friel, chairman and chief executive officer of PerkinElmer.
The facility, which has a total of 321 employees, is home to two demonstration laboratories where customers can have a hands-on experience with PerkinElmer's technologies.
It will serve as a global manufacturing site for PerkinElmer's detection and analytical instruments, specialising in a variety of advanced technologies such as atomic absorption.
The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr Koh Poh Koon, who was the guest of honour, said in his speech that PerkinElmer is an excellent example of a leading life science tools company using Singapore as a home base in Asia for complex instrument manufacturing, commercial and research and development functions, and as a strategic location to tap regional growth areas.
"We welcome more companies to use Singapore as a living lab to experiment with new business models or collaborative frameworks for the region and the world. The Government will continue to play an enabler role to facilitate companies in their efforts to build new business models around big data and patient-centric care," he said.
Dr Koh noted that there are currently 60 leading multinational medtech firms and more than 240 healthcare start-ups in Singapore.
With a rising middle class and an ageing population, there is an increasing demand for medtech healthcare, he said.
A recent McKinsey report said the Asia-Pacific medtech market is expected to hit US$133 billion (S$181 billion) by 2020, surpassing Europe to become the second-largest medtech market in the world.
