When life science start-up MiRXES was looking for a manufacturing facility in Singapore, the company immediately felt that JTC MedTech Hub @ MedTech Park would be a good location. They had surveyed other industrial parks in Singapore, but after just two visits to MedTech Hub, they knew it had the ideal location and facilities for them. So in 2016, MiRXES set up their manufacturing base at MedTech Hub, which complemented their research and development facility at Biopolis.
MiRXES specialises in developing blood microRNA-based cancer diagnostic tests which are accurate and non-invasive. The company recently won the “Most Promising Start-Up” prize at the OCBC Emerging Enterprise Awards 2016.
MiRXES was drawn to MedTech Hub because it was designed to cater for the medical device industry and had the hardware and infrastructure that other industrial parks did not have.
Many tenants in MedTech Hub, like MiRXES, require a clean room for their manufacturing processes. “The clean room needs to be pressurised to prevent entry of outside particles to minimise contamination during the manufacturing process. MedTech Hub has the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the construction of the clean rooms,” says Zhou Lihan, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of MiRXES.
Another attractive feature of MedTech Hub for Dr Zhou was the high floor-to-ceiling height. Most of the other facilities he visited had a three metre ceiling height, while JTC had specially designed MedTech Hub to have almost double the usual ceiling height at six metres to accommodate the large equipment and machinery that are becoming increasing common to medical device manufacturing operations.
Dr Zhou was also attracted by the clean operations of his MedTech Hub neighbours. “All the companies at MedTech Hub have clean products, and there are no other industries so we don’t have to worry about contamination.”
He added how JTC’s brand had even aided the company’s overseas expansion. “When we go to China, JTC is a recognised name, so MedTech Hub is a nice address to have on our name card.”
By being at MedTech Hub, MiRXES is able to tap into the expertise of the other tenants in the medtech cluster. For example, AQS Labs, a medtech regulatory consultant and training provider, is able to guide start-up like MiRXES on quality and regulatory compliance for product submission to regulatory agencies such as Health Sciences Authority and the US Food and Drug Administration.
By being at MedTech Hub, MiRXES is able to tap into the expertise of the other tenants in the medtech cluster.
Locating in MedTech Hub also helps them to save money by using the same service providers as their neighbours. For example, MiRXES is located across from jMedtech and they use the same waste disposal company, saving 10% of the cost of waste disposal because they do the collection of the waste together. Dr Zhou praises MedTech Hub for being conveniently located near institutions and companies MiRXES needs easy access to. “We’re close to many pharmaceutical companies and the new Jurong Innovation District that includes Nanyang Technological University School of Biology and Medicine ,” says Dr Zhou.
“We’re all in the biomedical industry, so it’s a nice ecosystem that provides a host of advantages to a medical devices company like us,” says Mr Zhou.
