Alcon to expand in Singapore

Pharmaceutical company Alcon plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Singapore, it has announced.

The new facility at Tuas Biomedical Park will manufacture drugs to be distributed internationally and it is expected to be fully operational by 2012.

Within three years, the company intends to take on 150 employees in order to meet the demands of this market, Alcon added.

Tuas Biomedical Park is already home to other pharmaceutical and biotech companies and Alcon will lease the land on which it will build the 250,000 sq ft facility.

Ed McGough, Alcon’s senior vice president of global manufacturing and technical operations, said: “Given the rapid growth in this region, this plant is integral to our ability to meet future market demands.

He added that Alcon chose Singapore because of “its highly skilled and reliable workforce and well-established government infrastructure”.

Alcon’s major shareholder Nestle recently sold 74 million shares ? about 25 per cent of total shares – in the company to Novartis.