It was late 2019 when reports of an uptick in atypical pneumonia cases began to intensify. A doctor by training, it sent “shivers” down Fidah Alsagoff’s spine.

“Memories of SARS, when hospital workers lost friends and colleagues, were still fresh,” recalls the Vice Chairman of Temasek’s Life Sciences team. “Alarm bells started ringing.”

By Chinese New Year the following year, the chilling reality of COVID-19 had set in. Temasek began considering the implications of the novel coronavirus from various angles, dusting off contingency plans from its experience of SARS and Bird Flu, and brainstorming ways it could help broader communities – before the virus got the upper hand.

The investment firm tapped its network of allies in Singapore and around the world for everything from masks and swabs to ventilators and oxygenators, and explored how it could help propel much-needed innovation. Fidah, who would later receive the Public Service Star for spearheading Temasek’s pandemic efforts, led the various work streams, tapping close to two decades of medical training and healthcare management experience.

He saw the company’s response to the pandemic as a “fundamental expression” of its values. "Helping people just because you can may not be typical of investment companies, but it is very much part of Temasek’s DNA."

A doctor’s pivot

For Fidah, who studied medicine at the National University of Singapore, it mirrored the epiphany he had in 1989, when he was considering training to become a surgeon. “All I had ever wanted since I was 11 was to become a doctor, but it was really the underprivileged I wanted to help – and general surgery wasn’t going to do much for them,” he says.

It led him in the direction of public health, and after graduating, he took his knowledge of community medicine first to a charity, serving as its Medical Director, and then to public hospital administration. Seeking a deeper understanding of the business aspects of hospital administration, he decided to pursue an MBA. 

Immersed in discussions around value creation, he knew he wanted to improve patient outcomes on a larger scale. At the time, Temasek was growing its interest in the life sciences and was looking to hire for deep domain expertise.

“I got lucky – Temasek took a bet on me,” laughs Fidah, who joined in 2008 to lead and grow the life sciences team globally. He double hatted as joint head of the firm’s Enterprise Development Group, helping to identify areas of growth and drive the commercialisation of innovation.

From the start, a major focus of the life sciences team was therapeutics. “Biotech was emerging, and it was both compelling and satisfying when investments in these companies not only delivered solid returns, but ended up helping patients. In early 2020, we invested in a fairly unknown company developing next-generation vaccines, and needed funding for the final phase of testing,” he remembers.

That company, BioNtech, a pioneer in messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, went on to co-develop one of the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines in the world.

Unending search for solutions

The effort to stay on top of the pandemic was relentless on all fronts, says Fidah, from testing and diagnosis to protection and prevention.

“As we watched the situation unfold, we tried to figure out where the next crisis would be. When there was a global shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs, Temasek collaborated with research institutes, hospitals, and small and medium enterprises to design, validate, and manufacture the swabs,” he says. “Without swabs, diagnostic kits were useless.”

Fidah and his team tapped Temasek’s ecosystem for diagnostics equipment, ventilators, and other supplies and support. Portfolio companies including PSA International and Surbana Jurong helped create makeshift medical care facilities and isolation centres preemptively, while Singapore Airlines got supplies to where they were most desperately needed.

“What helped were the relationships we had built over the years. You can’t make a friend only when you need one,” says Fidah.

Close to two-thirds of Temasek’s staff also stepped up as volunteers, some trading corporate garb for PPE to conduct daily swabs for migrant workers. Others rallied behind other initiatives, including distributing masks and sanitisers across the island, says Fidah. Another team packed and addressed boxes with these COVID essentials to keep Temasek’s global teams safe as they, too, did their part in helping the communities around them.

“We realised that when you deal with a pervasive invader like Covid 19, the solution is beyond the capacity of any single agency. It demanded collective action.”

United by purpose

Over the course of the pandemic, Temasek distributed over 35 million reusable masks and 146 million surgical and N95 masks, 1.3 million oximeters, and over 1.27 million litres of hand sanitiser in Singapore alone. It also provided some 40 countries, including many of Singapore’s neighbours, with essential medical supplies, including test kits, lab equipment, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

For Fidah, the experience fostered a deep respect for his colleagues, who tirelessly volunteered without lifting a foot off the pedal of their “day jobs”.

“Business had slowed, but we still had to deliver on our core mandate. I remember our former CEO Ho Ching once saying: ‘We hold money in trust and have to ensure we’re robust – not just in a single time and place, but for generations’.”

It was an ethic embraced across the company, as Fidah and his colleagues went from investment professionals to COVID-19 warriors and back.

“COVID-19 was an existential moment for the present generation. There were no arguments, just collective resolve. This is how Temasek will always be – constantly finding ways to remain relevant and fulfil our role as stewards.

“The desire to see that every generation prospers is not a tagline. It is who we are.”