Cmpletes global service network by adding a centre in the Asia-Pacific region to existing centres in the USA (Valencia, CA and Germantown, MD), Europe (Hilden, Crawley, Paris) and Japan (Tokyo)
Qiagen has opened a new service centre in Singapore for the Asia-Pacific region.
By the end of 2008, Qiagen's global customer support network will provide comprehensive service to customers at any time in any place in the world.
The new centre will further increase the company's responsiveness to the information and service requirements of customers in research, applied testing, pharma and molecular diagnostics in the entire Asia-Pacific region including Australia, allowing them to access the company's services faster, more conveniently and more efficiently.
The facility will serve as a base for Qiagen employees who will handle customer care and technical service requests in regional languages including Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and English.
"Qiagen not only sets standards in the development of innovative sample and assay technologies, but also for delivering outstanding service", said Peer Schatz, CEO of Qiagen, who hosted the official opening in Singapore.
"With this investment we can better respond to the needs of each and every customer, and we can also extend our services to 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the near future.
"It moves us even closer to our customers in all our market segments and helps us extend our global reach and enhance service level in this fast growing region".
"We are pleased that Qiagen has chosen Singapore for its new service centre, just after its recent announcement to set up a molecular diagnostics R+D centre here.
"This reinforces Singapore as an excellent location to effectively engage in the fast growing Asia Pacific healthcare market," said Aw Kah Peng, assistant managing director, Singapore Economic Development Board.
"We will continue to invest in translational research capabilities, particularly in the area of diagnostics, to further sharpen Singapore's innovative approach towards biomedical research and affordable healthcare".
The new centre complements Qiagen's recent major initiatives in Singapore.
In December 2007, the company opened DX Assay, a joint venture with Bio One Capital.
DX Assay develops molecular diagnostic tests which impact how diseases are detected and treated.
In January 2008, Qiagen announced that it had been awarded an exclusive contract by the Singapore Ministry of Health to supply sample preparation solutions and molecular test kits for the specific detection of Influenza H5N1 viruses - better known as avian flu.
Qiagen employs more than 50 staff in Singapore.
