Mr. Lim Chee Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Micropoint Technologies Pte Ltd
06 January 2010
By Ai San Yip and Erwin Chan
1. Tell us about your background. I studied Mechanical Engineering in the University of Manchester in United Kingdom and Intellectual Property Law and Intellectual Property Management in National University of Singapore. 2. Could you share with us the motivation and story behind your start-up? I worked in the micro-device team in IMRE for 6 years and all of us were enthusiastic on the development of a low cost manufacturing process for the next generation microneedle. Even till now, I am still very much in contact with the original team in IMRE, providing a bridge between the industry and academic research. So when I found an investor, Sumitomo Corporation Asia, I resigned from the research institute and started Micropoint! What I strongly believed is that industrial and manufacturing technologies have been the cleverest means so far of “bringing in industry” to achieve sustainable economies for a country. In my opinion, I think a piece of the puzzle has been left out, i.e. technology adoption. That is why Micropoint was spun off with the business concept of technology adoption model, a connecting concept I speak of even till today. I hope to further extend the technology concept and apply it to specific domains of interest to different adopter groups i.e. the innovators and early adopters, to promote technology acceptance. I came back to Singapore and found a job in the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) under A*STAR from 2002 till 2008. After which I incorporated Micropoint Technologies in April 2008. Microneedle technology is about making and using microneedles in biomedical applications, namely in intradermal drug delivery, vaccine and immunization, and body fluid extraction. Microneedles are small needles that are used in delivering drugs or extracting body fluids through the skin. One or up to hundreds of microneedles may be used depending on the volume of the drug and purpose of delivery. Particularly, Micropoint’s core technology includes making plastic microneedles via injection moulding process. The plastic microneedles can be made small and in any quantity to penetrate the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin, for the purposes such as delivering liquid or extracting body fluids and blood. Micropoint microneedles are cost-efficient, easy to scale in manufacturability as there is only one moulding step in the manufacturing process. And this will be the preferred choice of any customer! The most difficult times have to be the process of finding new customers for our technology. Difficult times also present tremendous opportunities! Tactical opportunity – to increase sales for Micropoint. We hope to sell 100 microneedles units to independent retailers in the next six months. Looking ahead, we are soon launching a ready prototype on our glucose blood monitoring product and subsequently, our own plastic lancets as consumable items to replace the stainless steel counterparts. “Stay hungry, stay foolish”. This is actually a quote that always inspired me. It was delivered by Steve Jobs in his Stanford commencement address. An innovator, philanthropist, management visionary and business strategist! · Steve Jobs · Li Ka Shing · Peter Drucker · Zhou Yu (Romance of the Three Kingdom, Red Cliff’s War) 8. How do you define Success in business? Success is like a marathon runner who runs miles and miles every day. When you have initial success in your first races back, you would somehow think of the many achievements and accolades. However, you still need to go on a hard run and concentrate on the various crossroads … “Go On”. The last extra mile is the most important. 
Mr. Lim Chee Yan speaking to our interviewer from his office.
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3. What is so interesting about Micropoint's technology?
4. What have been your most difficult and challenging times?
5. We know that you have achieved your dream to be an technopreneur. What are the new levels of opportunity that you are seeking?
6. What advice do you have for a technopreneur who is just starting out a life science/ biomed tech company?
7. Is there anyone who may have influenced your outlook on life and business?
To contact the reporters on this story: Ai San Yip at
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and Erwin Chan at
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