COLLABORATING WITH NEW EPIDEMIC PREPAREDNESS CENTRE TO ADVANCE SINGAPORE'S VACCINE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1396

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 7 OCTOBER 2026

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Poh Li San

MP for Sembawang West

Question No. 3178

To ask the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health how will the Ministry (i) further collaborate with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to advance Singapore as a centre of excellence for vaccine research and development (ii) establish a global network of trusted national regulators and production facilities and (iii) safeguard Singapore’s priority access to vaccines supply at a favourable price level during peacetime and pandemics.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1391

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 7 OCTOBER 2026

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr Neo Kok Beng

Nominated Member of Parliament

Question No. 3154

To ask the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health as regards to the Government's national strategy to prepare for future pandemics (a) what is the role of mRNA technology compared with other vaccine technologies; and (b) what is the budget allocated for the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and REsponse (PREPARE) and PrepVax programmes to maintain pandemic preparedness.

Answer

1        Mr Speaker, may I answer questions 1 and 2 together please?

2        A next pandemic crisis is an evolutionary certainty. It will happen; we just don’t know when.  What we are doing is to take a step further to prepare for a Disease X pandemic crisis. This means a new and unknown virus, with fatality rates like SARS or Ebola, and spread like COVID-19 or Influenza. 

3        In that scenario, contact tracing, quarantine, safe distancing measures, face masks, work from home, even a lockdown will be necessary. But the key to get us and the world out of such a crisis is an effective vaccine. 

4        COVID-19 vaccines took a record nine months to develop. The international scientific community coordinated by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which Singapore is part of, hope to do so in 100 days for the next pandemic crisis. 

5        To Ms Poh’s question – no country, including Singapore, can be the centre of this research and development effort. It has to be a collective international effort, where each centre around the world works on one or a few prototypes against a possible virus. When the outbreak happens, and we have learnt about the virus, we see which country or laboratory has the most promising prototype and then use it as the base to develop a vaccine. This is the basic concept of how CEPI works.

6        To Dr Neo’s question, because speed is of essence, as of now, it is likely to be an mRNA vaccine because of two key reasons. First, traditional vaccines are developed through a biological process of growing the (weakened or inactivated) virus or making its proteins, which takes time. Improving the vaccine requires iterations and hence repeating the same time-consuming process multiple times. On the other hand, mRNA vaccines are developed through a chemical and digital process. The new pathogen is genetically sequenced, and the mRNA vaccine is designed and coded to counter it. Iterations involve editing the genetic code of the vaccine, which is less time consuming especially with the use of Artificial Intelligence.

7        Second, traditional vaccines require custom made production lines, whereas mRNA vaccines production lines can be configured to make different mRNA vaccines. As a result, the path to production is potentially faster and can be on a much larger scale.

8        However, in a crisis, once a vaccine is discovered, there would be a mad scramble for it. To Ms Poh’s question again, we will leverage our relationships with the producer to secure supplies. But we expect the competition for vaccines is going to be much more intense than during COVID-19. 

9        Recognising this, countries around the world are making preparations to develop their own vaccines. But it is not so simple. As I mentioned, vaccine development for Disease X requires international collaboration and division of labour, so the likelihood of any country developing the most effective vaccine is not high. Even if a country has its own production line to make someone else’s most effective vaccine, there is the uncertain process of licensing, technology transfer before production can begin. Further, outside of a crisis, the production line needs to be kept warm with peacetime production because it is not possible to turn on a dormant line during a crisis and expect it to work. Preparedness has to be a living capability.

10      To build living preparedness capabilities in Singapore, the Government has committed about $190 million over the last five years to implement the PREPARE and PrepVax programmes. The budget does not include other efforts within the healthcare system, such as preparing our hospitals, building emergency stockpiles, and anchoring state-of-the-art, flexible vaccine production lines in Singapore.

11      One of the early investments in vaccine production is Hilleman Laboratories, a joint venture between MSD and Wellcome Trust. Sanofi opened its advanced production line called Modulus about a year ago. We are also working with Wellcome Leap's RNA Readiness and Response Global network, exploring continuous-flow RNA manufacturing. Through private sector participation, we hope to develop an ecosystem similar to the semiconductor industry, where there are companies that design the chips, and foundries that produce them. If we succeed, we will have flexible vaccine production lines in Singapore that can be configured to produce vaccines, especially mRNA, that others have discovered.

12      We witnessed some of the possibilities recently. With the support of CEPI, Hilleman Laboratories in Singapore will be developing and producing a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine candidate for clinical trials. Hilleman is using an existing Zaire ebolavirus vaccine as a base, improving it, and secured the license to produce the vaccine candidate in its flexible production line in Singapore. If the vaccine is successful, it has made arrangements with a regional player to scale up production. This is a demonstration of what we hope to be able to do during a pandemic crisis. 

13      Regulatory preparedness is another critical enabler. The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is strengthening Singapore’s links with trusted regulators through its international networks and CEPI’s Regulatory Advisory Group. These partnerships facilitate information-sharing, regulatory alignment and coordinated reviews, which can help safe and effective vaccines be assessed and deployed more quickly during a pandemic. As our local vaccine manufacturing production capabilities develop, HSA will aim to attain WHO Listed Authority status as a vaccine-producing country, as it has done for drugs and medical devices.