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Singapore set out to become a global biotech hub back in 2000, and, although still awaiting its big success story in the industry, it is in 2025 a leading hub in the APAC region for research and development (R&D), biopharma manufacturing, and commercial operations, with a growing startup ecosystem that includes numerous biotech companies.
In 2000, the government in Singapore made biomedical research the fourth pillar of the city’s state economy, known as the National Biomedical Science Strategy. Then, in 2003, under the initiative, the country established Biopolis, which is a custom-built biomedical R&D hub. Over the next 20 years or so, billions of dollars were invested in the life sciences sector.
Nowadays, despite the presence of global companies in the region, Singapore is still focusing on growing its own biotech community. And, as it relies on its network of top universities and research institutions, there are several companies popping up across the country.
In this article, we take a look at seven of those companies, all of which are showing growth across different areas within the biotech industry in Singapore.
Table of contents
Albatroz Therapeutics
- Developing therapeutic antibodies against novel target that degrades the extracellular matrix (ECM)
- Raised $3 million in seed round in April 2023
- In 2023, Albatroz became first Amgen ‘Golden Ticket’ recipient in Singapore
Having secured a seed funding round of $3 million in April 2023, Singapore-based biotech company Albatroz Therapeutics is developing therapeutic antibodies against a novel target that degrades the extracellular matrix (ECM). The novel ECM degradation target is a protein complex activated by a glycosylation pathway, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of solid tumors and arthritis – the two indications that the company is presently focused on.
While at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore, Fred Bard, the chief executive officer (CEO) and scientific co-founder of Albatroz, discovered the pathway that controls protein glycosylation and drives ECM degradation. The study of this pathway led to the discovery of the company’s novel target, which becomes exposed at the cell surface after glycosylation. Activation of this target occurs specifically in tumors and arthritic synovial membranes – connective tissue that lines the joint capsule.
Albatroz’s targeted antibodies have high specificity for this target, selectively reducing extracellular matrix degradation while also minimizing toxicity.
The company has recently become a recognized pioneer in the Singapore biotech community. In 2023, the company announced it was the first Amgen ‘Golden Ticket’ recipient in Singapore, whereby it was awarded a one-year free residency in NSG Biolabs’ fully-equipped BSL-2 laboratory, alongside additional facility benefits, and connections to Amgen’s scientific and business leaders. Additionally, in August 2024, Albatroz announced its membership of Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Singapore, which Bard said provides Albatroz with access to mentorship, infrastructure, and industry connections that will be instrumental in propelling its therapies toward the clinic.
Allozymes
- Next-gen enzyme engineering platform; can build and test millions of enzymes per day
- Ongoing partnership with GenScript; Allozymes provides ultra-high-throughput screening service for applications across various industries
- In May 2024, Allozymes raised $15 million in series A round
A Singapore synthetic biology startup, Allozymes’ mission is essentially to upend traditional manufacturing methods through rapid, sustainable enzyme engineering. The company points out that using chemical processes to manufacture ingredients is highly polluting, while current methods of isolating natural ingredients from plants and animals are also damaging to the environment, as they typically utilize high volumes of biomass, energy, water, and land. This is why the Singapore-based biotech company wants to create custom-designed enzymes – so that they can solve this issue in a sustainable and scalable fashion.
Allozymes has employed a microfluidics technology to create its next-generation enzyme engineering platform, which can build and test millions of enzymes per day. This boosts the likelihood of success in being able to develop the most effective enzymes. It is also significant, because, generally speaking, finding new and useful enzymes is a complex, slow process, so the fact that Allozymes can screen up to around 10 million enzymes per day represents a significant improvement in this area compared to using traditional robotics technology.
Allozymes also has an ongoing partnership with GenScript, a global biotechnology group. As part of the collaboration, Allozymes provides an ultra-high-throughput screening service for applications across various industries, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food and beverage, while GenScript provides the mutant libraries construction and expression.
Additionally, in May 2024, Allozymes raised $15 million in series A funding, helping it to accelerate its expansion into Europe.
Engine Biosciences
- Pipeline of oncology medicines and biomarkers
- Two platforms: biology search platform NetMAPPR; and CombiGEM combinatorial CRISPR platform
- In October 2023, Engine raised $27 million in series A extension round
Engine Biosciences integrates machine learning and high-throughput biology to identify key genetic interactions within complex disease networks, pinpointing targets and therapies for biomarker-defined patient populations. Its pipeline is primarily made up of programs for oncology, as it looks to address a wide range of solid tumors. It currently has one novel biomarker for external clinical compounds that has reached the clinical stages.
Engine’s biology search platform, called NetMAPPR, maps biological networks and reveals critical genetic and molecular interactions integral to diseases, while its CombiGEM combinatorial CRISPR platform delivers masses of purpose-built experimental data to enhance NetMAPPR and validate findings for drug development. Together, these technologies help Engine select its growing pipeline of therapeutics, targets, and patient selection biomarkers to support drug development and partners in oncology and additional disease areas.
In October 2023, the Singapore-based company raised $27 million in a series A extension to advance the development of its medicines and biomarkers.
Gero
- GERO.AI platform used for drug discovery purposes
- Gero formed research collaboration with Pfizer in January 2023
- In October 2023, Gero raised $6 million in series A extension round
Singapore-based biotech company Gero is working in the field of longevity, hoping to cure root causes of chronic diseases, as well as slow down aging itself. It is a preclinical stage company, and its aim is to create therapeutics through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), with its GERO.AI platform being used for drug discovery purposes.
The company’s approach is to apply machine learning algorithms originating from the physics of complex systems to build clinically relevant disease progression models in real-world human data and identify clusters of diseases with shared biology. After this, the AI-enhanced genetic study on the progression models, in conjunction with whole-exome sequencing data, reveals novel therapeutic targets that are potentially applicable to several indications simultaneously.
Gero also has a platform called GeroSense, which creates digital biomarkers to measure health changes via smartphone with a precision blood test.
In January 2023, Gero announced that it had entered a research collaboration with Pfizer to apply its machine-learning technology platform to discover potential targets for fibrotic diseases, using large-scale human-based data.
The company also raised $6 million in a series A extension round in October 2023, which allowed it to continue internal drug development programs, grow its scientific team to boost platform technology development, and expand its U.S. presence.
Hummingbird Bioscience
- Lead candidate: HMBD-001, an anti-HER3 monoclonal antibody
- HMBD-001 being tested in phase 1/2a trials in U.K. and phase 1b trials in Australia, targeting multiple solid tumors
- Raised $125 million in series C round in 2021 and entered into partnership with Merck in 2023
Hummingbird Bioscience, which raised $125 million in series C financing in 2021 in a round led by Novo Holdings, is attempting to lead a new way of engineering precision biotherapeutics that can define the future of precision medicine, with a focus on important biologically validated targets in cancer and autoimmune disease that have previously been elusive and difficult to drug.
The Singapore-based biotech company has a proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery platform, which it uses to discover and engineer precision therapies and unlock the therapeutic potential of these targets. It then uses biomarker-driven clinical trials to maximize the probability of successful clinical development.
Hummingbird’s lead candidate is HMBD-001, an anti-HER3 monoclonal antibody. This means it targets HER3, which is a potent driver of tumor growth and resistance against cancer drugs, as its activation is driven by the dimerization (the process of joining two identical or similar molecular entities by bonds) with HER2 and EGFR, triggering the MAPK/PI3K signaling pathway, which promotes cancer cell division and growth. HMBD-001 is engineered to bind strongly and specifically to the dimerization interface of HER3, allowing it to interfere with HER3’s ability to dimerize and block its activation.
HMBD-001 is being tested in phase 1/2a trials in the U.K. and phase 1b trials in Australia, targeting multiple solid tumors. In October 2023, Hummingbird announced positive phase 1 data for the candidate as a monotherapy, as it was shown to be safe and well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities and no severe treatment-related adverse events.
The company also entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck in May 2023 to evaluate HMBD-001 in combination with Merck’s cetuximab in squamous non-small cell lung carcinoma.
KBP Biosciences
- Discovery platform for novel compound identification established around two major areas – organ protection and anti-infection
- Lead candidate: Zifanocycline; in phase 1 for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia
- Novo Nordisk acquired KBP Biosciences’ ocedurenone in October 2023
Based in Singapore, biotech company KBP Biosciences has built a proprietary discovery platform that it says incorporates world-class processes for novel compound identification established around two major areas – organ protection and anti-infection. The platform includes a substantial compound library, high-volume screening and optimization techniques, and a pharmacological experiment platform for evaluating pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) and toxicology for various novel drug candidates. The platform has generated each of KBP’s candidates currently in clinical and preclinical development.
KBP’s small molecule compound library includes rich chemical entities consisting of compounds designed and synthesized by the company with unique chemical structures and high potency, compounds synthesized based on different core structures that cover almost all known core structures, as well as a natural product library of compounds extracted from plants, marine organisms, and microorganisms.
In October 2023, it was announced that Novo Nordisk agreed to acquire ocedurenone for uncontrolled hypertension, with potential application in cardiovascular and kidney disease, from KBP for up to $1.3 billion. Ocedurenone was KPB’s lead candidate and is an orally administered, small molecule, non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (nsMRA) that was being tested in a phase 3 trial before Novo recently halted it as it failed to meet its primary endpoint.
KBP Biosciences’ new lead clinical candidate is called Zifanocycline and is currently in phase 1 for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.
RVAC Medicines
- In 2023, RVAC received approval to initiate phase 1b trials for three COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidates
- In 2023, RVAC announced research collaboration with University of Pennsylvania for mRNA vaccine discovery and development
- In 2024, RVAC and A*STAR announced partnership to develop solutions to construct mRNA manufacturing and analytics capabilities in Singapore
Headquartered in Singapore, with sites also in Boston and Shanghai, RVAC Medicines is an mRNA platform company, focusing on the development and commercialization of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines across a range of disease areas, including COVID-19.
In 2023, the biotech company received approval from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to initiate a phase 1b clinical trial in Singapore to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of three COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidates. The candidates included one vaccine against the ancestral strain, one against an Omicron strain, and a bivalent vaccine candidate with components of both ancestral and Omicron strains.
Additionally, in March 2023, RVAC announced a research collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, which is focused on the discovery and development of mRNA vaccines that can modulate the body’s normal immune response as possible treatments for certain autoimmune diseases and allergic conditions.
In June 2023, it was also announced that the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), would provide funding of up to $3 million to advance and accelerate the manufacturing process for RVAC’s next-generation mRNA vaccine platform technology. The reason for the partnership is that, using innovative manufacturing approaches, RVAC’s mRNA platform could speed up the manufacturing of mRNA vaccines, and help to get doses into arms more quickly when responding to future epidemic or pandemic diseases.
Most recently, in February 2024, RVAC and A*STAR announced a partnership to develop solutions to construct mRNA manufacturing and analytics capabilities in Singapore.
Singapore’s biotech scene in 2025: A forward-looking perspective
Singapore’s stance as a leading R&D hub in the APAC region, alongside its considerable investment in life sciences, and network of top universities and research institutions, means that it has the potential to grow its biotech sector even further in the coming years. In fact, the Singapore biotechnology market size, valued at $823.5 billion in 2021, is expected to grow 8% yearly, and the number of biotech companies is forecasted to increase from 52 at present to 84 by 2032.
Furthermore – as can be seen from the fact that many of the companies listed in this article are startups – the country’s growing startup ecosystem will also allow for the launch of more and more biotech companies so that they can continue to bring their innovative ideas forward onto the world stage.
This article was originally published in October 2023 by Willow Shah-Neville and has since been updated in January 2025.
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