Singapore is an ideal location for clinical research and clinical trials management in Asia. Besides offering the basic essentials like a consistent business environment and an excellent communications infrastructure, it also has a pool of highly skilled manpower, an established regulatory infrastructure and a strong intellectual property protection regime. Being the secretariat for the APEC Coordinating Centre for Good Clinical Practice, Singapore has also been the focal point for the development of GCP in Asia, steering many initiatives such as the training of clinical research personnel and the creation of a conducive environment for multi-site clinical trials in the region. All these factors have prompted many global leading pharmaceutical players to set up their regional clinical trial centres in Singapore to engage the region, including: AstraZeneca, Aventis, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Synthelabo and Schering-Plough.

Amongst the increasing range of clinical trial activities conducted on the island are: Eli-Lilly's Lilly-NUS Clinical Pharmacology Centre that carries out at least 15 drug trials per year in clinical pharmacology as well as ethno-pharmacology Novo Nordisk manages and coordinates clinical trials of new diabetes care products in the region from Singapore. Further strengthening its attractiveness as a location for clinical development is the presence of many world-class hospitals and specialty centres. Reputed as the regional medical hub, Singapore has specialised expertise and capabilities within centres such as National Cancer Centre, National Heart Centre, National Neuroscience Institute, National Skin Centre and Singapore National Eye Centre.		Novo Nordisk is conducting clinical trials of new drugs in Singapore through its $10 million Asia Pacific Clinical Development Centre

Adding impetus to cancer research in Singapore is the Cancer Therapeutics Research Group (CTRG) - a multi-institutional research collaboration that actively engages the expertise in the following institutions to develop novel therapy for cancer through clinical trials: National University Hospital/National University of Singapore, Sydney Cancer Centre/University of Sydney, Johns Hopkins - NUH International Medical Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong and National Cancer Centre, Singapore. To support the growing outsourcing needs of pharmaceutical companies, several Contract Research Organizations (CROs) have also established operations in Singapore, including global leading CROs such as Covance, Quintiles and ICON.