Singapore’s pharmaceutical exports surge thanks to high stockpiling
Singapore’s exports of pharmaceutical products have surged since the beginning of this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic fosters worldwide stockpiling of drug ingredients.
Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s exports of pharmaceutical products havesurged since the beginning of this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic fostersworldwide stockpiling of drug ingredients.
The country’s pharmaceutical output hasincreased by 86 percent so far this year, with April’s shipments surging 174percent year-on-year.
According to Fitch Solutions, Singapore isone of the few countries in the world that exports more pharmaceuticals than itimports. The nation has more than 50 manufacturing facilities, including plantsowned by eight of the world’s 10 biggest pharma firms.
The US, Europe and Japan were Singapore’sbiggest export destinations for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) inrecent months.
How Ti Hwei, President of the SingaporeAssociation of Pharmaceutical Industries, said that companies and governmentsaround the world are building large inventories of APIs and drugs to ensuresupplies of medicines remain uninterrupted and can be made close to market.
Singapore’s biomedical industry, whichemploys more than 24,000 people, accounted for about 20 percent of themanufacturing sector in 2019 which in turn made up about a fifth of GDP./.
Singapore's manufacturing output in March grew 16.5 percent over the same month last year, after contacting for four months, thanks to a surge in biomedical manufacturing, said the country’s Economic Development Board (EDB) on April 24.
Increasing demand for medicine amid the COVID-19 pandemic has helped most pharmaceutical enterprises report positive business results in the first quarter of this year.
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Illustrative image (Source: AFP) 
