Engineering cures for rare diseases

Process engineer Lim Jie Ming is helping to tackle one of the world’s rarest diseases

By Rachael Goh

August 6, 2019

A group of people, dressed in long white coats and hairnets, moves between different stations in a white-washed room. Some are growing cells in bioreactors, while others are separating mixtures through a laboratory technique known as chromatography.

This is the process manufacturing floor of a Takeda Pharmaceuticals Asia Pacific facility in Singapore. It is also where Mr Lim Jie Ming goes to provide technical support to teams producing therapies for rare diseases.

“As a process engineer in Takeda’s Manufacturing Science and Technology department, I ensure that biopharmaceutical products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards. It is a technical role that requires me to be somewhat of a subject-matter expert in processes,” he says.

Fine-tuning a career in biopharmaceuticals

The skills and expertise acquired from the training programme, he says, has enabled him to tackle problems in different areas of the work stream — from cell culture to purification processes.

Says Mr Lim: “The training curriculum covers key areas and real-world practice beyond what you learn in textbooks.”

After completing the 21-month programme, he joined the Japanese company as a full-time process engineer and was tasked with overseeing the daily manufacturing of therapies for haemophilia, a genetic disorder that disrupts the blood’s ability to clot and affects about one in 7,000 males worldwide. He also successfully organised an educational road show on haemophilia for members of the public.

“The programme provided many opportunities to learn from seasoned industry professionals and allowed me to explore different aspects of this industry.”