Collaboration with Global Scientific Community to Create a COVID-19 Vaccine
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns MP Christopher de Souza’s inquiry on how Singapore collaborates with the global scientific community to create a COVID-19 vaccine. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong stated that Duke-NUS Medical School is conducting pre-clinical studies with Arcturus Therapeutics and monitoring trials with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. He noted that local researchers are engaging international groups for clinical trials and have registered for the World Health Organisation’s multi-country Solidarity Vaccine Trials. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong also shared that public hospitals and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases are participating in multi-national therapeutic trials involving the drug Remdesivir. These collaborations focus on rapid screening of vaccine candidates and animal trials to support the global development of effective treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.
Transcript
6 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Health how is Singapore collaborating with the global scientific community to create a COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The global scientific community is focusing efforts on research and development of an effective vaccine against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Singapore has been contributing to these efforts.
The Duke-NUS Medical School has partnered with the US-based Arcturus Therapeutics in the development of a vaccine. The school supports the pre-clinical studies by conducting rapid screening of vaccine candidates for effectiveness and safety, as well as by conducting animal trials.
Local doctors and researchers have also engaged academic groups and vaccine companies from Europe, North America, Australia and China, on participation in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine. For example, the Duke-NUS Medical School has partnered with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) on a clinical trial which involves monitoring of side effects and immune response of trial vaccines among healthy individuals. Singapore has also registered as a trial site for the World Health Organisation's multi-country Solidarity Vaccine Trials.
Apart from vaccine development, Singapore has also been involved in the research and development of therapeutics to improve the treatment of COVID-19 patients. For example, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and public hospitals are participating in multi-national clinical trials involving the experimental drug, Remdesivir, which has shown to improve the recovery of COVID-19 patients in some studies.