Dr Roger Brimblecombe
Chairman, pSiMedica Ltd and pSiOncology Pte Ltd

Mr Lim Yong Wah
Chairman, Singapore Health Services

Professor Ong Yong Yau
Chief Executive Officer, Singapore General Hospital

Mr Bernard Chen
Chairman, Biotech Research Ventures

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today is a historic day for Singapore General Hospital. Today marks a major milestone in the Hospital’s efforts to commercialise its health research. Today is the day that Singapore General Hospital makes its first leap into the world of healthcare business by taking a stake in pSiOncology Pte Ltd, a joint venture company with pSiMedica Limited, a healthcare firm engaged in the research and development of therapeutic devices using silicon technology. I am indeed very happy to be able to join you this afternoon at the launch ceremony of pSiOncology Pte Ltd.

Singapore has in place the necessary ingredients for biomedical research to thrive. We want the biomedical sciences to be a strong pillar of Singapore’s manufacturing sector. The supporting framework for life sciences research is being slowly put in place. This joint venture company with pSiOncology is a good example of how biomedical research, in this particular instance, cancer research, can be given a boost, and further enhanced in Singapore.

Cancer is currently the cause of 12% of all deaths worldwide. World Health Organisation estimates that each year, cancer affects more than 10 million people worldwide, and kills 6 million. In Singapore, one of every four deaths is due to cancer. Lung and colorectal cancers are the top 2 cancers occurring among local males, and breast and colorectal cancer are the most frequent cancers amongst females. Although cancer is more common in men, its occurrence in women has been steadily increasing over the last 3 decades. As age itself is a risk factor for cancer, the number of cancer cases occurring is set to increase even more as our population ages.

We have often heard that "prevention is better than cure". For cancer, prevention is infinitely better than having to undergo treatment, as treatment modalities have various unpleasant side-effects. What is even worse is that many cancers cannot be cured despite treatment, especially if the cancers are detected late. We should therefore strive to prevent cancers from occurring, or have screening programmes to pick-up cancers early for treatment. My Ministry has actively working to prevent cancer.

Hepatitis B is a risk factor for liver cancer. Hepatitis B vaccine has been acknowledged to be a cost-effective public health intervention, especially in countries like Singapore where the carrier prevalence is considered high. The seroprevalence of Hepatitis B among adult Singaporeans is 4%. Hepatitis B vaccination was included in the Singapore National Childhood Immunisation Programme in 1987, as a strategy to protect our children from Hepatitis B infection and its complications involving the liver, including liver cancer. However some children, e.g. those born before 1987, may not have been immunised. It is this group of unvaccinated children that the Hepatitis B Immunisation Programme for Students is targeted at, from 2001 to 2004. About 90,000 Secondary Three (Sec 3), Year 2 Junior College (JC 2), and Year 3 Centralised Institute (CI 3) students have been screened so far. In the first year of the programme, more than 90% of those who required immunisation were immunised.

My Ministry has also put in place the National Breast Cancer Screening programme for women to detect breast cancer early. The screening mammography service is available at nine (9) cluster polyclinics throughout the island and is set to be extended to another two (2) by the end of the year, bringing to a total of eleven (11) polyclinics offering mammography. More than 14,000 mammograms have been done on women aged 40 and above since the programme started in January this year.

Cervical cancer is a cancer that can be picked up in the pre-cancerous stage and effectively treated. Pap smears are readily available in Singapore, and any sexually active women can avail herself of this simple and cheap screening test. The Health Promotion Board will be conducting a pilot Pap smear screening project by the end of this year and will expand it to a National Cervical Screening Programme in 2003.

Despite these preventive efforts, there will still be a group of people who will be afflicted with cancer. For these people, cancer treatment strategies become important. pSiOncology will offer to this group of cancer victims, specifically those with liver tumours, the hope of a novel and promising mode of treatment, using biodegradable silicon. I understand that pSiOncology is among the first worldwide to develop the use of biodegradable materials as carriers for cancer therapeutics, - as a delivery agent for the treatment of cancer. Cancer victims with tumours previously inaccessible by conventional treatment, can now look forward to more treatment options.

We are living in exciting times. PsiOncology will provide the platform for Singapore General Hospital to move from pure research to biomedical applications of these research studies. Partnerships with other international industrial partners will also allow for the mutual technology and knowledge transfer, and for the training of our future researchers. Collaborations like these will incentivise our research community to invest in breakthrough research, and bring Singapore to greater levels of research excellence.

Thank you.

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