Are Biomedical Research Clusters Emerging In Singapore? An Exploratory Study

Innovation and new product development in the biomedical device industry is a complex process requiring interface between medical sciences, precision engineering and information technology. Further challenges are added by the presence of stringent regulatory requirements (e.g. FDA), health economics, outcome considerations, intellectual property issues, and complex nature of market where highly influential intermediaries (medical doctors) not only make product selection for end users (patients) but also contribute to product development. As a result, only a few biomedical device innovations succeed in reaching the market and fewer become commercially successful. A unique characteristic of this industry with regards to innovation and new product development is the importance of research collaboration between the clusters of universities, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), hospitals and medical doctors (lead users). The evidence of this is seen in the largest and probably the most established biomedical cluster in San Francisco Bay area, which is home to 31 universities and over 700 life sciences companies [California Healthcare Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers (2000)]. These clusters of innovation are observed to be contributing significantly to regional economies of the US. Hence many nations as well as biomedical device multinationals are recognizing the importance of these new sources of innovation (i.e. universities, SMEs and users) and their collaboration.From this angle, the authors in this exploratory study examined biomedical device innovations taking place in select countries in Asia-Pacific and compared that with the innovation output of Singapore from a sample population of 33 000 patented innovations over a four year period (2000–2003). In addition, an attempt was made to understand the factors that are important for successful commercialization of biomedical device innovations from Singapore universities, through a questionnaire based survey of a sample of 50 researchers, and in-depth interviews with a sample of five venture capitalists and five medical doctors (lead users).The findings based on this study indicate that (1) Singapore university researchers appreciate the need for collaborative research with the industry but are sceptical about the present environment and process in Singapore. (2) Only a third of surveyed researchers have motivation to commercialize their innovations. (3) Medical doctors are more comfortable teaming up with universities than with the industry. (4) Industry has short-term perspective of research collaboration.The authors' recommendations are to (1) Encourage co-invention teams between universities, industry, and hospitals (medical doctors and clinicians), (2) Build a long-term co-invention culture through collaborative leadership, (3) Attract investment in local biomedical device R&D and production, and (4) Help Singapore universities and researchers appreciate Asia-Pacific market opportunities.