Global Life Science leader Cytiva launched BioChallenge in Southeast Asia to support biotech startup development

Cytiva, a global life sciences leader, has launched its BioChallenge competition in Southeast Asia to empower small to medium sized biotech companies in the fields of cell engineering, process development, as well as isolation and purification. Winners of the BioChallenge will be awarded up to SG$200 000 in FastTrakTM services so that they can scale up efficiently, mitigate risks, and reduce time to go to market.

Since its introduction in 2018, Cytiva's BioChallenge has supported research, bioprocessing development and commercialization of over 130 projects globally in the form of four million USD worth of products and services. In addition to BioChallenge, Cytiva supports the biotech community in Southeast Asia through the Cytiva Experience Learning Lab (CELL), which was established in Singapore in 2021. CELL has to date conducted more than 70 training sessions with tertiary academic and research institutes on the latest bioprocessing and production techniques for the development of advanced therapeutics.

Firman Ghouze, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific at Cytiva says "According to the FDA, 63% of approved biologics are driven by small and medium sized companies signaling that smaller ventures are driving innovation in biologics. Cytiva's BioChallenge recognizes the talent, resource and scalability constraints faced by the industry, particularly by early stage biotechs or translational research organizations. By launching the BioChallenge in Southeast Asia, we hope to foster a culture of cooperation and open innovation with governments, think tanks and institutions to address these challenges and empower promising biotech startups with the speed and flexibility to bring highly advanced innovations from molecule to market."

According to the 2021 Global Biopharma Resilience Index, a survey of 1165 biopharma executives and healthcare policymakers across 20 countries by Cytiva and Financial Times' research arm Longitude, manufacturing agility and R&D collaboration were key challenges faced by startups in the biopharma industry. The Index revealed that startups do not have the same access to talent and resources as big biopharma companies to scale up from discovery. The Index findings also lay a clear roadmap for biopharma firms that need to make their manufacturing operations more agile. They must think more strategically about the role of rapidly scalable operations that reduce upfront costs and be bolder with adopting technology early in the process.