Anchored in Asia, Wired to the World: Singapore’s Innovation Story | LSI Asia '25

Ruey Feng Peh  0:03  
Good afternoon, everybody. So the title of today's panel is Anchored in Asia, Wired to the World Singapore's Innovation Story. So what we hope this panel can do, and we want to start with beginning, the end in mind is this panel, hopefully it's a condensed 30 minutes for two groups of audiences that are here. One, it's the community, investors, entrepreneurs, innovators from US or Europe who are considering to come to Asia and weighing whether you want to kind of set up shop, have a base here in Singapore. So today's content is for this first group, the second group, we're hoping that this condensed half an hour could be helpful, is for also innovators and investors from Asia Pacific, maybe from China, Korea, Japan, thinking about internationalizing, expanding from your domestic market, and wondering whether Singapore should be a one of international base for you to internationalize. So that would be the content they were hoping that to add value for this half an hour. And want to first and foremost, introduce the panel today. So on the left is Mr. So Ling won. Lin Wan is assistant managing director of enterprise Singapore. Enterprise Singapore, EDB and a star are three important public agencies has been driving the local Singapore med tech scene. And linguine is also the chair of Medtech catapult, national med tech initiative office. Next we have Mr. Wong Yao Chong. Yao Chong is the Group CEO of advanced Medtech. Advanced tech is a Temasek owned Medtech company that started from here in Singapore, and right now they have businesses across Europe, US and China. On the far right, we have Mr. Sim Chi Minh is a Singaporean ex entrepreneur. Right now, he is director of international partnerships at Tsinghua medicine in Beijing, and he's also the assistant of Deputy Provost of Tsinghua University Professor Wong kenning, who is unable to join us today. So lastly, I'm Ray PEI. I'm the head of innovation at Genesis Medtech. We are Singapore headquarter platform company with heavy focus in China and international emerging markets. I'm also the founding faculty and mentor of Singapore Biodesign. So before we start the time with our three panel, there are actually two more panelists that were really hoping to be with us today, Professor Josh MC Howard, founder and director of Stanford Biodesign and venture partner in sovinova. And the second panelist was hoping to be with us today is actually Professor Wong kenning, Deputy Provost of Tsinghua University and the founding head of Tsinghua medicine, and also the chair of Singapore bio design. Both gentlemen are actually giants in the med tech traffic between us and Singapore and US and China. Unfortunately, due to their conflict, they are not able to hear be here in person, but they have generously offered a video message that on this topic that are dear to their hearts. So can we before we start the panel? Uh, roll the video.

Video Playing  3:27  
Good morning. I'm Josh Makower. I'm the co founder of the Stanford musallen Center for Biodesign and a professor of medicine bioengineering here at Stanford. I'm sorry I can't be with you all today. Um, I was really hoping to be able to get there, but it's just too many things going on, graduating of our fellows, etc. So it's, it's a pleasure to address you this way. Thank you, Ray for inviting me to provide this video. I'm just going to go through a little bit of the history of Stanford Biodesign with Singapore. It started with two of our US, Biodesign fellows.co, and Ray PE. Dot was at EDB, and Ray was at a star and they really stood out when they came back to Singapore. They shared their experience, and they really encouraged the government to look at Biodesign as a way to facilitate, inspire, advance, you know, the ecosystem around health technology in Singapore and potentially for all of Asia. That prompted a delegation to come out in 2009 and in 2010 John Hennessy, our president at the time, signed a, you know, an agreement with the Singaporean government to begin, you know, Singapore Stanford Biodesign program.

Video Playing  4:54  
Hi everyone. I'd like to welcome all of you to the LSI Asia Summit. I'm. Sorry I couldn't join today, but I would like to congratulate Ray and organizers for organizing this summit. I'm sure you will have a productive and a very interesting session. My name is Professor Tian Yin Wong. I'm the current founding head and the Senior Vice Chancellor for Tsinghua medicine, based in Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Let me tell you a little bit about Singapore's role in the med tech ecosystem. Singapore has always been a very important bridging role between the West and the East. We have a lot of connections and collaborations with the US and Western Europe, and we also have increasing being a platform and a bridge for Chinese companies and for Singapore companies to go to China. I think Singapore plays a very key role in this very difficult and uncertain times. Singapore is a open, innovative society. It has a lot of high level talents, and it has a lot of platforms to bring people of different types of expertise together, for example, doctors, scientists, engineers, and he has the ecosystem to create new ideas and to execute some of these new ideas. We hope to bring some of these products, some inventions, innovations that originates either from the west to Singapore, Singapore to China, and from China to Singapore and Singapore to the rest of the world. I think this kind of bridging platform roles are very critical to bring the world closer together,

Ruey Feng Peh  6:46  
all right, and due to time constant, unfortunately, we can't play add an entire video over this session, but Josh basically shared further about how the Bay Area have partnered with Singapore, and that has gone as far as 15 years ago, and how subsequently, different Bay Area ecosystems and groups came over to Singapore, and before they've launched themselves in Asia, and Prof Wong in the subsequent video shared about various activities, both Singapore and China's Healthcare System are collaborating. So what we have done is you can still scan the QR code to watch the full clip on the content, but right now, while you scan the QR code and have it in your cell phone, we'll switch the attention to our live panelists and first and foremost on this topic, obviously, you really want to start with Ling. Won Ling, we are very fortunate to have a very senior leader from enterprise Singapore, and they've been one of the key drivers of driving the Singapore med tech scene. So lingua me for for a start, share with us about the Singapore med tech landscape and for the other the two groups of audiences here that we were trying to cater this panelist to any schemes or advice for organization individuals who are looking at coming to Singapore.

Leng Wan Soh  8:06  
So, thanks. Thanks a lot. Rui, yeah, so I think first I wanted to address the question of, you know, why Singapore? You know, I think we spoke about, you know, coming from the rest of the world to Singapore through APAC and vice versa. But why Singapore and not say, some other locations in this region? And I thought there's really three points useful to share here. One is that really there are already many med tech multinationals who are already here, and why they are here. I think the previous session, I spoke quite a bit about it, about our conducive business environment and our, I would say, very protective IP regime. And I think that is a plus for many med tech companies to once, to come to Singapore, to go on to the rest of the world. A second point, I think, which was also kind of covered in the previous session, is the fact that I think the Singapore government is a very supportive government, I think in the med tech domain as well, I would say, in the larger life sciences domain. So I think we have invested quite a big sum of money over the years in R D, but it goes beyond R D, I think, to have the attention, to have the whole ecosystem of support, be through the Singapore bio design program, be it through the setup of the med tech catapult to enable commercialization. So I think these efforts, I think, illustrate how the Singapore government supports the business community in, I would say, translating the R and D to commercialization. And the third point, I think, to really share here as well is the fact that I think the Singapore healthcare system, I think, is going to be a good partner, I think, for many of the companies in terms of innovation and development, right, and from there, I think it's about how our healthcare system and our R D system, I think, have also linkages to the larger network within APEC, and how this, in turn, helps companies, I think specifically in terms of the kind. Of, I would say support, right? I think Rui mentioned about different kinds of schemes in that regard, I thought to perhaps differentiate it in terms of both financial and non financial support. And I would say, actually, the non financial support is very important. I think for the various companies enterprises, they are setting up shop in Singapore. So I think for one, I think in particular for many of the startups, I think who are coming to here. I think this is where we have the global venture capitalists and incubators, whom we have attracted to set up shop here, right? And they, in turn, will be very good partners to partner many of these startups. Two, I think in terms of the Singapore government support, I think we have, I would say, multiple offices across the world, in this region, where we, in turn, help Singapore based companies, I think, establish market connections in these various overseas cities, right? And this is also working with very established partners, for example, like Mayo Clinic in the US, to help companies from APAC going into us so that they understand what the US market system is like, yeah. And then finally, I think beyond this non financial support, I think there is always financial support, which could be, I would say, customized to very specific companies needs. So that is a discussion we will have, I think, with the respective companies. Yeah.

Ruey Feng Peh  11:21  
Thanks. And so for the audiences here and whoever is going to watch this from the video, if you want to find out more about schemes, maybe you know, you know, linguine and enterprise Singapore team could be a group that you've tapped on. So let's quickly segue into from government perspective to private company perspective. So advanced Medtech has been an exemplary company that started from Singapore, fully tamasic owned, and have gone international. So, Yao, can you share with us the journey of advanced Medtech, how you've become international from being a Singapore company? Sure.

Yau Chung Wong  11:58  
Thank you. Ruey. Good afternoon everyone, it's a pleasure to be here. Let me first start off by introducing advanced med tech. We are in the business of treating two common but uncomfortable conditions, kidney stones and benign prostate hyperglasia, BPH. Kidney stones is known to be one of the worst pain that patients can ever experience, and the prevalence is increasing with our dietary habits. For men in the room, unfortunately, half of us, when we are above 50 years old, will experience enlarged prostates, and a simple task of going to the washroom becomes a test of patience and plumbing. But the good news is that for those of you all who have experienced kidney stones and BPH, you might have been treated by devices for advanced med tech, and you may not know it. So I'm the Group CEO of advanced med tech, and we are 1300 staff globally. We are global urology medical device company headquartered in Singapore. We have deep roots in Singapore, but we also have a deep heritage in German engineering with our fully owned subsidiary Dornier Medtech in Germany. Wesley Dornier is the pioneer of Shockwave lithotripsy, the first non invasive procedure for the treatment of kidney stones. Today, we have gone grown from a single product company to an entire portfolio of products for endoerology, ranging from shockwave little trip to surgical tables, surgical lasers, scopes and consumables. Now what so advanced unique about advanced med tech story is, how did a Singapore based company grow to become among the top six global urology medical device company in the world, with 60% of our business and staff in the US and the rest in Europe, China and Japan, I would say the answer is in innovation, innovative products that's driving this growth and this innovation that is source from Singapore and bridge from Singapore. So let me explain this two parts about source from Singapore and bridge from Singapore. In terms of source from Singapore, I'm very proud of a project they are working on called Project clarity. This is a project in Singapore to develop the next generation intelligent lithotropsy laser system. Now it's a research collaboration between doctors, urologists from un 10 Teng Hospital, a hospital in Singapore, working together with public government research institutes such as a star Singapore Biodesign and Medtech capital, together with industry partner, and that's advanced Medtech and Donia Medtech. I. Up. It is like what lingua said, a perfect illustration of how the ecosystem works in Singapore, with doctors, engineers, researchers, working seamlessly. Dona Medtech comes in with German engineering to help bring the deep German engineering expertise, and we reached a very proud milestone earlier this year when the team in Dona us, with his deep commercial and marketing presence, brought the Singapore innovation team to showcase and prototype its device at the annual American urology Association Congress in Las Vegas. Now it's not just about Singapore as a source of innovation, but Singapore being a bridge for innovation, a bridge for innovation between China and the world. We all heard about Professor Tian in mention about it. And advanced metech is a company that have used Singapore as a platform to bridge the innovation between China and the world. Now, when you talk about innovation in China, people come what comes to conjugate to mind is BYD, deep sleep, Ev, AI. But the very same factors scale, ambition, speed that drives this innovation is also driving med tech innovation in China, which my fellow panelists, zooming will talk about later, how advanced med tech what we do is that through our wholly owned subsidiary recon in Shenzhen. We combine our r, d team, the capabilities there, together with the German engineering, bring German precision, together with Chinese agility speed, the result, we have world class products at very cost, effective prices. Besides this, what the Singapore how we play a role is that we help to bridge the engineering cultural differences between Germany and China, and that's the critical role that Singapore plays. The other innovation that we tap upon in China is the advanced med tech sources and work with innovation partners directly in China, with our commercial strengths in US, Europe and Japan, my commercial team is able to directly feedback on the point clinician views on the products that the Chinese are innovating in, and Chinese with their speed, agility, quickly iterate these products and customize the products for the different markets, US, Europe and Japan. And this is something that they could it will be more difficult for them to do it by themselves. Now, where Singapore play a role is that we help to bridge the communication between the markets in the west and the east, and that helps facilitate the innovation process. So Singapore to me, to advance me tech, and to many of you, can be a base for you to build, to build your innovation, to source it, to connect, to build the bridge between the cultural gaps between the East and the West, and to scale, to bring these innovations to a global impact. I'll end off here with just a few words. Here I've started off talking about stone. Kidney Stone has BPH, I will just say that for those who you are who do not have kidney stones, keep it up. Please drink the water. Water is a proven way to not have kidney stones. For BPH, for men under the age of 50 and 60, enjoy the ease of going to the toilet. And lastly, if it comes to hit you in the future, don't worry with the innovation that advanced metech is doing. We've got you covered. So thank you.

Ruey Feng Peh  18:34  
Yeah, and thanks Yau Chung for sharing. I think, yes, we always say Singapore is one of the Asia Pacific countries in the south, right? So very apt for advanced method, a very Singapore company, to also be dealing with health down in the south of our body. So, but thank you. Chung the I think it's actually a great example how operationally, just within Yao Chong advanced metech ecosystem, how their teams from Singapore, Germany, US and China, actually works together. So I think that's hopefully that's an adult to us on how these international teams could actually work. If there is a Singapore note in these teams, let's segue now with a lens more between Singapore and China. So Jim Ming, it's actually zooming. It's and Prof Wang, two exciting individuals. They are Singaporeans. They are born and raised here, but right now, based in Shanghai, based in Beijing, and journeying with Tsinghua to internationalize their medical community and their research. So ZhiMin, I know you've been you and Prof Wong has been on a very high level, on a institutional, high institutional level, even with among government level. See more partnerships between Singapore and China. Can you share more like about that? Yeah,

ZhiMin Sim  19:58  
thanks, Rui. So I. My name is ZhiMin. I was born and raised in Singapore, and currently I'm based in Beijing, as Ray said. So part of my work in Tsinghua University and Tsinghua medicine is actually dealing with partnerships, right? So whether that be academic and corporate partnerships or whether it's international partnerships. So I think when we come to kind of look at partnerships in general and how it can facilitate more of these international collaborations. We really think about it from a couple of perspectives. I think what we have tried to do in Tsinghua medicine, trying to build an academic health system for China, allowing us to plug in with some of the leading international academic partners. It gives us a good base for us to lend long tail projects like education, but also research and also potentially innovation partnerships, right, whether it be looking at clinical trials or implementation partners, right in hospitals. So since we have got to Tsinghua in the last three years, where we have really built out strong international education programs, I think this is really important for one thing, to collaborate with the healthcare ecosystem in general. Actually, one of the things that we have piloted over the last few years is to bring Singapore students, medical healthcare students from Singapore, and putting them in the Chinese health system, and then bringing Chinese clinician students, whether is it clinical students as well as research students, to Singapore as well. I think one of the things that that does is create this long tail of academic partnerships, right that will facilitate long term collaboration between Singapore, China as well as China, Singapore and the rest of the world. We also do a lot of academic collaborations, through research, through grants, through clinical trials. I think one of the big strengths of China in this health ecosystem is really the scale. I mean, of course, people know that China is a huge country, but even then, I think it underestimates what China is like. I always tell people that it's probably more helpful to think of China as a continent as opposed to being a country right in terms of land mass, in terms of people, in terms of size. Just a few weeks ago, I was at one of the largest neuroscience facility in China, right? So, 10 hospital in Beijing, and the number of brain surgeries that they do in one day is what most centers around the world do in a quarter, right? So, like, three months, right? So, you know, the scale and volume is just of a different level, and I think that kind of scale lends itself well to whether is it you're looking at clinical trials, you're looking at cohort studies, you're looking at a lot of these implementation studies, and trying to get your ideas out quickly. I think they really lend themselves well to that. I think just now a lot of a lot of things was mentioned about speed of scale. I think those are the things that I think China can offer right to the rest of the world. And I think from our perspective as Singaporeans working in China, I think as long as we can facilitate more of that bridge building between Singapore and China, we can help build that bridge as well between the rest of the world and China. And I was end with this one point right which I think that one thing that Singapore offers is we have a lot of academic partners that have collaborations with China, but it's not just if at the university and at the hospital at the clinician kind of level, but also we have government officials and we have policy makers that also have deep ties with China. But we also have corporate partners as well with deep ties with China. I think this whole ecosystem approach towards our collaboration, not only in China, but actually the rest of the world as well, right? That kind of academic, private, public type of partnership, I think, is one of the great strengths of the Singapore ecosystem. And hopefully, I think, at this conference, with a lot of our partners from outside of the region, right? A lot of these partnerships can be explored in that right? So I'll end with that note, thanks, Ruey.

Ruey Feng Peh  23:41  
ZhiMin, thanks for sharing that. And it's I'm personally aware that swimming prof Wong and between Singapore China, these collaborations with Tsinghua and rest of the healthcare system spends beyond universities and hospitals, physicians, they have also companies that are based in Southeast Asia that managed to leverage on Tsinghua and China's clinical scale, clinical studies scalability, and got products approved in much faster time. So So Thanks ZhiMin for sharing that light. I'm looking at the clock. I know that now we're being hurried to to wrap up this session real quick. So my my last few comments will be not just to wrap up, but also to speak a little bit more about the US and Singapore's partnership, or the last 15 years to supplement one what Josh is not able to share fully for not being here, so for especially for the US and the European LSI community that's here or watching on the video, Singapore's partnership with us really started 15 years ago. And what Josh has mentioned, and I still remember vividly, in 2011 i. Uh, Singapore actually hosted Dr Tom Fogarty to fly into Singapore to open the inaugural Singapore Stanford bio designs thought leaders series. And fast forward to today in earlier this year, Josh and the Stanford team actually came flew in and accelerated 15 years of friendship between Bay Area and the US med tech ecosystem in Singapore. And subsequently to that, we've seen that groups like the Fogarty institution, after Dr Tom Fogarty came to Singapore many years ago, they're now advising public agencies here in Singapore, and in fact, incubating and hosting some of the Singapore or Southeast Asian startups in Silicon Valley. We've also seen the groups like of like light stone ventures was now very deep partnership with Te marcic and the foundry incubator having, actually it's a group of R D team here in Singapore in one of their portfolio companies. So I think there is a lot of the friendships that hopefully these are examples that can encourage again, people in the audience who are watching from the video, if you're wondering about coming to Asia and whether Singapore could be a base this, hopefully these are examples that can give you inspirations. So wrapping up, thank you the panel for sharing from government perspective, company, private company, case study and zooming, sharing insight about how the traffic between Singapore and China has been. So I hope this is helpful for the community here. And I will say ending off with regardless in your decision whether you would like to come to Asia, to have a base in Singapore, or we are based in Asia, wanting to internationalize to Singapore. Hopefully the LSI conference is one that still really encourage us to have this east west collaboration as really one global Medtech village, especially in this sensitive and interesting times that we are in. Hopefully this east west partnership will continue to blossom, and eventually we will impact patients. So with that, thank you for your attention, and hopefully this conference will serve you fruitful partnerships and deals that move your organization to a next level. Thank you.