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SINGAPORE – The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Singapore, and the first shipment of the vaccine is expected to arrive here later this month.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed this in his address to the nation on Monday (December 14), saying, “I am very happy to tell you that after studying the scientific evidence and data from clinical trials, the Science Authority of Health approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine for pandemic use. “
This makes Singapore one of the first countries to get this vaccine, he added.
Lee said other vaccines are expected to arrive in Singapore in the coming months.
“If all goes according to plan, we will have enough vaccines for everyone in Singapore by the third quarter of 2021,” he said.
Britain was the first country to approve the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 2, and the United States did the same on December 11.
The approvals come after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech released the final results of the late-stage trial of the Covid-19 vaccine in November.
The findings showed that their vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing a person from becoming infected with the coronavirus.
The Straits Times had previously reported that the American biotech company Moderna, which is developing another pioneering Covid-19 vaccine, is also seeking approval from the HSA to implement its vaccines here. HSA said it has begun to evaluate the available data.
Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines take advantage of a new technology called messenger RNA.
Traditional vaccines, such as inactivated virus vaccines and live attenuated vaccines, work by injecting whole but inactivated viruses into patients to stimulate an immune reaction. This is what is done for polio (inactivated polio vaccine) and chickenpox (a live, but weakened virus vaccine).
But RNA vaccines involve injecting bits of the viral genetic code so that the patient’s body generates a protective response without actually being exposed to all of the virus.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first RNA vaccine on the market.
Read the highlights of Prime Minister Lee’s announcements and the Covid-19 ministerial task force here.
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