Medtech industry players target Asian solutions

SINGAPORE — A smart toilet, currently on trial at the National University Hospital urology department, measures the volume of urine passed by patients with enlarged prostates. In future, the same smart toilet could be used to measure glucose in urine to detect diabetes.

Devices that test for human diseases such as influenza viruses are also being worked on by A*STAR’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, which opened the Delta-IBN Science and Diagnostics Lab this year to develop next-generation infectious disease detection kits.

The medical technology (medtech) industry, which uses technology to create new healthcare solutions, is advancing rapidly here, as industry players seek to develop solutions for the Asian market.

Since the identification of medtech as a key sector within the biomedical sciences industry, medtech has grown tremendously: According to A*STAR, Singapore’s medtech sector contributed S$5.5 billion in manufacturing output last year, up from S$1.5 billion in 2000.

During the same period, the number of people working in this industry here grew from 4,000 to more than 10,500. According to SPRING, there are more than 100 medtech SMEs in Singapore currently.

In an interview with TODAY, Associate Professor Tan Sze Wee, deputy executive director, Biomedical Research Council at A*STAR said: “We are starting to see companies come here to work on inventions that fit the Asian population more. The physical and disease profiles are a lot more different, so they will customise it for the Asian market. Some companies are seeking new growth areas.”

In particular, Prof Tan said, he is seeing a wave of Japanese companies coming here. For instance, the smart toilet on trial is manufactured by Japanese company TOTO.

“If successful, it could even be extended to smart homes. If Singapore is going to be a smart nation, with ageing in place, medtech can help tackle the disease burdens and constraints in the workforce, and even raise productivity,” he said.

Doctors have also been prolific in collaborating with research engineers and scientists to produce new inventions. Almost one in 10 inventions under the A*STAR Biomedical Engineering Programme (BEP) is being commercialised, and S$50 million has been invested in 71 projects.

“We do see that for the last few years, doctors and engineers are talking more frequently. We’re trying to push for more IP (intellectual property) to be done in Singapore,” added Prof Tan.

“In terms of outcome, in the short term — less than five years — we are looking at moderate, simpler forms of medtech. For those more than five years, it would be in the area of diagnostics. In five to seven years, we are looking at implantables.”

In fact, research institutes here are already starting to look at how to develop non-invasive monitoring devices for, say, tracking diabetes without needing to draw blood, according to people in the industry.

Given the vast potential, a lot of weight is being placed on the biomedical industry, the only bright light in Singapore’s sputtering manufacturing sector.

Data released Monday showed that industrial output slowed its pace of contraction to 4.8 per cent from a revised 7.1 per cent decline in August, as the biomedical cluster — which gained 26.3 per cent — helped cushion the sector from a more severe blow.

Excluding biomedical output, overall output would have fallen by 10.2 per cent.

For the whole of last year, the biomedical cluster was also the star performer in manufacturing output, accounting for about 65 per cent of overall growth.

Globally, the medtech industry is projected to reach a figure of more than US$300 billion (S$419 billion) in 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 6 per cent. A significant part of this growth will be from the growing Asia Pacific market, where it is projected to grow more than 10 per cent over the same period, said A*STAR.