Local Research into Nipah Virus Diagnostic Kits and Vaccines

2 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what is the progress of local research into Nipah virus diagnostic kits and vaccines; (b) whether Singapore currently possesses or has plans to develop Biosafety Level 4 laboratory capacity for such vaccine testing; and (c) what grants or subsidies support local firms to ensure such research remains viable without a commercial market.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Koh Poh Koon) (for the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health): Sir, the main local research programme on Nipah virus and other pathogens with pandemic potential is the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response (PREPARE). PREPARE is funded under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) programme, which can involve collaborations between public sector institutions and private sector firms.

To date, under PREPARE, Duke-NUS, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) are conducting six research projects on Nipah virus covering diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. All of these are in progress and do not involve the use of live Nipah virus, which requires a biosafety level (BSL) 4 laboratory.

Singapore currently does not have a BSL 4 laboratory for the purposes of research. The Ministry of Defence is upgrading the capabilities of DSO National Laboratories to BSL 4.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Can the Senior Minister of State provide a timeline, if any, for a locally developed and validated Nipah diagnostic kit, and when will that be ready for deployment across our public hospital network?

Secondly, the concerns about the Nipah virus are real but the Oxford NipahB vaccine has recently entered Phase 2 trials in Bangladesh and received prime designation from the European Medicines Agency to expedite review. Given these developments, will the Health Sciences Authority consider an interim authorisation for this vaccine through the Pandemic Special Access Route to ensure rapid deployment in the case of a local outbreak?

Thirdly, how is Singapore coordinating with regional neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to share genomic sequencing data or research findings to ensure a collective response to any potential regional Nipah outbreak?

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Sir, on the Member's first question on timeline for the outcomes of research, I do not have definitive timelines. And I think the Member would understand that for research activities, even the researchers themselves probably would not know when they would hit jackpot.

I think we will continue to fund and support them in any way we can and hope that their research will bear fruits in the time horizon that they are hoping to achieve. So, that is something where I am afraid we would just have to let time take its course and for the research activities to be concluded.

For the vaccine targets that may well be on trial elsewhere, we will keep a close eye on some of the developments and see if these are useful products that we can have access to as well.

But I must also caution on the Member's suggestion. The Nipah virus outbreak at this moment is localised. It is not something that is widespread. The Nipah virus in the South Asia continent has been something that occurs there from time to time. So, this is not the first time it is happening. But generally, it is a zoonotic infection that has very rare, or does not often have, human-to-human transmission.

The current transmission is localised to certain localities, it is not widespread. But we are raising our caution to watch this carefully. It is not the same posture that we adopt as for COVID, which had become a generalised pandemic in that episode we had been through. So, there is probably no urgency at all for now, for us to look at procuring vaccine targets ahead of time in anticipation of a widespread global pandemic.

Nonetheless, we have stepped up our national posture and issued out alerts to healthcare practitioners, institutions, as well as tighten some of the monitoring at our migrant worker onboarding centre to make sure that we keep our borders under some observation. For any incoming individuals who may have symptoms, to take proactive actions to contain, to isolate and also to to give them supportive care if necessary; and at the same time, also to help them to monitor their symptoms within the first 14 days of arrival in Singapore, for example. So, we are adopting a cautious posture, but looking for vaccine target at this moment is premature. [Please refer to ​"Clarification by Senior Minister of State for Health", Official Report, 12 February 2026, Vol 96, Issue 17, Correction By Written Statement section.]

Thirdly, on his question on coordinating with other regional and global partners, that is an ongoing stream of work that CDA has always undertaken. That was the reason why we have raised our alerts – because we have information from our partners in the World Health Organization, in other jurisdictions, such as West Bengal. We will continue to maintain those links, share information as needed and to continue to adjust our posture.