Singapore may get Novavax vaccine by year-end: Health Minister

June 25, 2021 | 15:39

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Singapore may include COVID-19 vaccine of US biotechnology company Novavax into its national vaccination programme before the end of this year, Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung has said.

Singapore may get Novavax vaccine by year-end: Health Minister

Illustrative image. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Singapore – Singapore may include COVID-19 vaccine of US biotechnology company Novavax into its national vaccination programme before the end of this year, Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung has said.

Speaking at a virtual press conference held on June 24, he said the Ministry of Health (MoH) has been looking for vaccines of good quality, which are safe and effective, to be part of the national vaccination programme, adding that Novavax has recently shown encouraging results.

Novavax has been shown to be more than 90 percent effective against a variety of COVID-19 variants, based on late-stage data from its clinical trial in the US, The Straits Times reported.

The company said it could file for emergency authorisation in the US and elsewhere in the third quarter of this year.

Like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, it also requires two shots, spaced apart.

In January, Singapore signed advance purchase agreements with the Novavax company to secure its vaccine, with supplies possibly arriving before the end of the year.

Currently, only the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use mRNA technology, are offered under Singapore's vaccination programme. These vaccines teach cells to make a protein that prompts an immune response.

Novavax is a protein-based vaccine that uses purified pieces of the virus to spur an immune response. Vaccines against whooping cough and shingles employ this approach.

VNA

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