Covance Inc., one of the world's largest drug development services companies, opened here on Tuesday its first nutritional chemistry laboratory in Asia to serve the growing food manufacturing market in the region.

According to a statement issued by the company, the 2-million-U.S.-dollar facility, an extension of Covance's world-renowned nutritional chemistry laboratory in Wisconsin, the United States, will offer independent and internationally recognized safety testing of food and product samples from Asian companies seeking to export to the United States.

The new 5,000-square-foot laboratory in Singapore can pre-qualify ingredients and products before shipment, which simplifies export requirements, eases logistics, and significantly reduces product release times.

The laboratory in Singapore will initially focus on the testing of infant formula for release, stability, and labeling data, and will also include testing of food and health supplements.

As a well-known leader in nutritional chemistry in the United States, Covance also operates late-stage clinical drug development services in Singapore. The company recently expanded its central laboratory space in Singapore and offers sophisticated medical sample testing and data management services to support global clinical trials of potential new pharmaceutical products.