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SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (Nov 12) that it had appointed a 14-member committee on COVID-19 vaccination to make recommendations to the government on Singapore’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy.
The recommendations of the committee, which was appointed on October 5, will include the safe and effective use of COVID-19 vaccines in the population of Singapore.
The committee is chaired by Associate Professor Benjamin Ong, Senior Advisor to the Director of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health and Senior Vice President (Health Education and Resources) of the National University of Singapore.
Comprised of experts in infectious disease, immunology and other relevant fields, the committee will draw on scientific and clinical expertise to evaluate candidate vaccines and recommend suitable vaccines for use against COVID-19 in Singapore when available.
The committee called its first meeting on October 13, 2020 and has been meeting regularly for the past month to discuss the profiles of various candidate vaccines, as well as the conditions for the deployment of the vaccine in Singapore.
Its president, A / Prof Ong, said: “There are many factors to consider, as not all vaccines would be adequate, safe and effective for all segments of our population. The Expert Committee will need to closely study the clinical and safety data as they become available, taking into account our local context, so that we can assess and recommend a suitable and holistic vaccination strategy that can be implemented for the Singaporean population. “
The announcement of the committee’s creation comes days after several trials of leading vaccine candidates in Singapore and elsewhere yielded promising data.
A COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly by an American pharmaceutical company and the Duke-NUS School of Medicine is expected to be ready and supplied to Singapore in the first quarter of next year.
The company, Arcturus Therapeutics, said on Monday that the Economic Development Board committed $ 45 million (S $ 60 million) to finance the manufacture of the candidate vaccine ARCT-021 and up to an additional $ 175 million (S $ 235 million). to buy. the vaccine.
The ongoing development of Phase 1/2 of ARCT-021 is taking place in Singapore and has produced “positive interim clinical study results,” Arcturus said.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer also announced Monday that its experimental vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are the first drug makers to announce successful data based on a large clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said Wednesday that the country’s Sputnik V vaccine is 92 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, based on the results of the interim trial.
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday that even when a COVID-19 vaccine is available, it is unlikely that the entire population of Singapore will be able to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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