ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Wednesday it would spend more than $500 million on a new biotechnology production site in Singapore to support its growing pipeline of biologics.

The Basel-based company said construction of the new site would begin in early 2013 and the facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2016.

Novartis said the site will focus on drug substance manufacturing based on cell culture technology.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley)