The Field Of Biotech Dreams.(Cover Story)

Byline: Alexandra A. Seno

Within the shiny new glass and metal buildings of the Biopolis complex in Singapore, computers are hard at work on the Encyclopedia of Life. Building on the Human Genome Project, which took a decade to catalog 30,000 genes, the encyclopedia will try to identify the body's millions of proteins, which could yield broad new insights into the origins of disease, and potential cures. With more powerful computers and the experience of the genome project from which to learn, EOL researchers expect to complete their even more complex task in less time and with far fewer staff.

It is no accident that Singapore is one of the centers of the EOL project, which connects the Biopolis to the San Diego Supercomputer Center and other partners around the world. Faced with the competitive threat from China, nearly every country in Asia has tried to move into more advanced industries, including biotech. But so far, according to investment bank Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia and Life Sciences Insights, a U.S. consulting firm, only Singapore has made real progress. The goal, says Philip Yeo, co-chair of the Singapore Economic Development Board, is to build a soup-to-nuts industry, from research to manufacturing and service. And Singapore has gone about it with the kind of focus that only a tiny city-state could muster, one where a disciplined central government lavishes billions--$2 billion on research alone since 2000--to entice the biggest corporate names and individual stars. Among them: the British scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996.

So far, the visible gains are in manufacturing. Singapore now hosts 80 percent of the world's major drug companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. Pharmaceuticals account for 10 percent of non-oil exports, with annual sales of $6 billion, up ...