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Each year the World Bank compiles a report that assesses the world’s friendliest business climates for small companies. The top three companies on this year’s list, Singapore, New Zealand and the US have been there four years in a row. The real shocker this year was that several previously lagging nations moved up on the list, mostly because of business-friendly reforms. This year’s most improved nation is Azerbaijan, which moved up 64 spots to a overall ranking of 33^rd because it reduced the time required to start a new business from 122 to 16 days, reforming its civil code and creating an online tax filing system.

Singapore has habitually been number one on the list because of its low import and export costs, strong government-imposed legal protections for investors and lopsided, employer-friendly labor regulations. The US placed high on the list because its labor laws are among the least rigid in the world and because business can be started quickly with a minimum amount of “red tape”.

For those of you who may be interested the top ten list looks like this:

1. Singapore
2. New Zealand
3. United States
4. Hong Kong
5. Denmark
6. The United Kingdom
7. Ireland
8. Canada
9. Australia
10. Norway

To see the rest of the list and find out more about starting a small business in your own click here

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (why not start one?)

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Is it luck or good planning that has prompted many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to set up manufacturing and research operations in Ireland? In my opinion, the recent Irish pharma and biotech explosion has little to do with luck and everything to do with strategic vision, excellent planning and a well trained, inexpensive workforce.

Currently, 28 out of the 50 top pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies in the world have facilities in Ireland. Some of these companies are Merck, Wyeth, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Schering-Plough and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Seven out of 10 of the world’s top selling blockbuster drugs are now manufactured in Irish production facilities. 

Pharmaceutical companies were the first to set up shop in Ireland. However, biotechnology is growing rapidly and biomanufacturing is starting to over shadow traditional small molecule production. Companies including Wyeth, Centocor, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Organon Biosciences (now part of Schering Plough) and Allergan manufacture biologics and biotechnology products in Ireland. In fact, Ireland is home to the world’s largest biomanufacturing facility, Wyeth’s € 1.3 billion Grange Castle near Dublin.

So why pharma and biotech are companies flocking to Ireland? First, the Irish labor force is well trained, everyone speaks English (albeit with an Irish lilt) and wages are still low. Second, Ireland has the lowest corporate taxes in the entire European Union. Further, there are R&D tax credits and financial support for start ups.  For example, there is financial support to purchase consultancy and innovation vouchers worth €10,000, a substantial amount of money for any startup! Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Irish government had the foresight to create a public/private enterprise known as the National Development Plan (2000-2006) that invested € 2.5 billion to create an Irish R&D infrastructure.

The Irish strategy–“built it and they will come”– has certainly paid off handsomely for Ireland. Another country that has embraced a similar strategy is Singapore–which through a public/private initiative has been building a vibrant life sciences and biotechnology industry since 1999. Both countries now compete for pharma and biotech business. For example, in late 2007, Merck decided to build a € 200 million vaccine facility at Carlow Town in Southeast Ireland. Novartis, on the other hand, opted for Singapore to build a new $180 million pharmaceutical tabletting facility along side of its API production plant.

Unlike Ireland, the American pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries are in trouble and losing their competitive edge. Perhaps the US can learn a thing or two from the Irish to give its bioscience industry a much needed shot-in-the arm.

Until next year….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Ireland)!!!!!!!!!!

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Novartis announced late last year that it intends to invest about $700 million to build a new biomanufacturing facility in Singapore. Construction will begin in early in 2008 and the plant is expected to be fully-operational by 2012. The new cell culture production facility will employ approximately 300 people and support manufacturing of both clinical and commercially-available products, mostly monoclonal antibodies.

At present, biologics and protein-based biotechnology products represent about 25% of Novartis’ drug pipeline. Most of these products are owned and manufactured by Novartis’ wholly owned subsidiary .

You gotta tip your hat to Singapore—their government-sanctioned plan to invest billions of dollars into biomedical research seems to be paying off!

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Singapore)!!!!!!

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