TauRx Therapeutics, an almost unknown drugs company, has found itself at the centre of worldwide attention after details of its Rember drug for Alzheimer's disease were released last week.

Global drugs giants are beating a path to TauRx's door and, if the Rember drug fulfils its early promise, it could help to catapult Singapore on to the global biotechnology map.

TauRx, which operates from an industrial estate in Singapore, was founded in 2002 by scientists from Aberdeen University, who shunned their domestic venture capital market and looked east for financing.

Stephen Logan, senior vice-principal of Aberdeen University, a neurologist and a member of the TauRx board, told The Times that, while there was plenty of venture capital money in Britain, the cost of taking it was high in terms of equity.

"We found that Singapore and the Singaporeans were much more accommodating investors than they are in the UK,” he said.

The Aberdeen-based scientists - led by Claude Wischik, the driving force behind the Alzheimer's research - initially raised about £15 million.

The academics and other researchers who founded the company own 34.8 per cent, with the rest owned by external investors, including Temasek, one of two Singapore sovereign wealth funds.

TauRx has been structured so that while it is technically a Singaporean business, its principal contract is to carry out research led by Professor Wischik and his colleagues at Aberdeen.

The board holds regular meetings in Singapore and the company has research operations in Berlin and Warsaw.

Even before TauRx unveiled its progress on the Rember drug, its investors had been actively pursuing business partnerships and other potential exit strategies.

Professor Logan hinted that discussions may take place over the next few months. The intellectual property of the drug is wholly owned by TauRx.

The Singaporean Government has only recently begun touting itself as a biotech hub, but it has made rapid progress in attracting foreign researchers and international firms to its seven-year-old Biopolis complex.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Minister of Finance, told The Times that the Government was bidding for international talent.

“We reckon that basically if you don't get the best, you're not going to get traction,” he said. “We are not the leading player, but we are now in the senior league.”

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