Singapore: In a bid to foster the diagnostic and medical devices sector, Singapore recently launched the new Diagnostics Development hub (DxD. Led by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), the DxD hub aims to create local diagnostic products more quickly by combining the skills of experts, including clinicians, researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

The $60 million center was inaugurated by Mr S Iswaran, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. The center will collaborate healthcare and academic medical institutions like SingHealth, National University Health System, National Healthcare Group and the Singapore Clinical Research Institute.

The center will also involve multinational players Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Thermo Fisher Scientific, along with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups such as AITbiotech, Gencurix, HistoIndex, iPtec, InvitroCue and MiRXES.

There are currently 70 ongoing projects in the DxD Hub. Every project that comes in will be assessed by an evaluation panel, which comprises members from the clinician and commercialisation sector. This panel will be refreshed every year to ensure there are diverse views.

Dr Sidney Yee, CEO of DxD Hub said that the center will provide an opportunity to make product development interactive, simultaneous and concerted. "The most common mistake that most companies, start-ups, SMEs and product development make is that they go through it one time, thinking that this is the way to manufacture. They find out too late that it does not really meet the specification, either from the perspective of the users, which is the clinician, or the needs of the patient, their end-users. By then, they have to go back and redo the whole process."

DxD will facilitate consulting with multiple players such as the academic medical community and global companies at the beginning stages of a product development and thus play a major role in reducing product errors and bring products to fruition within an 18-month timeframe.