Agilent Technologies Opens Global Manufacturing Facility for Life Sciences Instruments

The opening of the LC/MS manufacturing facility marks a milestone in Agilent's continued investment in Singapore, which began in 1970, said Bill Sullivan, Agilent president and CEO. Singapore is the ideal location for this facility as it will provide us with greater access to the life sciences instrument market in Asia. The new facility also will bring us closer to our customers, as the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries have become an important part of Singapore's overall economy and investment strategy.

Agilent's LC/MS instruments are widely used by pharmaceutical companies, from basic research through manufacturing and quality control. The instruments also serve customers in biotechnology, bioagriculture, food safety, chemical, petrochemical, forensics, homeland security, environmental, academic and government markets.

I am pleased that Singapore will be an integral part of Agilent's global manufacturing network, said Mr. S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Education. Life sciences companies can further tap Singapore as a base in Asia to drive business expansion and innovation for the region.

This expansion marks a major achievement and positions Agilent to better meet rising worldwide customer demand for LC/MS instruments, said Nick Roelofs, president of Agilent's Life Sciences Group. The new facility reflects the company's commitment to Singapore, its partners, and other stakeholders in the Asia Pacific region, as well as to the growing life sciences market worldwide.

In June 2009, the company announced the Agilent Automation Solutions facility, also in Singapore. The facility manufactures high-precision laboratory automation instruments.

The new Agilent LC/MS manufacturing facility will attract top talent and enable the development of skilled engineers and chemists in Singapore as these are sophisticated high-end scientific instruments, said Soon-Chai Gooi, president of Agilent Technologies, Singapore and Malaysia. The facility builds on Agilent Singapore's 40 years of innovation, experience and relationships with our partners and customers.

The Agilent LC/MS facility is located within the Agilent Life Sciences Group Order Fulfillment Center, located at its Yishun, Singapore, site. The center will be responsible for efficient management of the supply-chain network -- including planning, procurement, value-added engineering and logistics. The center ensures that the LC/MS facility is able to efficiently and effectively deliver configurable solutions to customers worldwide while maintaining Agilent's hallmark of quality.

Agilent will produce the Agilent 6100 series Single-Quadrupole LC/MS, 6200 series Accurate-Mass Time-of-Flight LC/MS, 6400 series Triple Quadrupole LC/MS, and the 6500 series Accurate-Mass Quadrupole Time-of-Flight LC/MS at the new facility. These instruments are in addition to the liquid-handling and laboratory robotic instruments produced by the Agilent Automation Solutions facility established in 2009.