Singapore approves Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine

SINGAPORE has approved Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine for use in the city-state, and expects the first shipment to arrive around March.

The vaccine is the second to be authorised for use by the Health Science Authority (HSA) after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is now being administered in the city-state.

It will be progressively rolled out to individuals aged 18 years and up, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a separate statement. Singapore is the first in Asia to approve the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine has demonstrated a high vaccine efficacy of 94 per cent, where benefits outweigh the known risks, said HSA in a statement on Wednesday. This means that there is a 94 per cent reduction of symptomatic Covid-19 disease in a vaccinated group of people, versus a similarly sized group of unvaccinated people, it added.

This was calculated based on a Phase III clinical trial with over 30,000 participants aged between 18 and 95.

Two groups of experts, from HSA's Medicines Advisory Committee and panel of infectious diseases experts, were consulted during the review to ensure that the vaccine is safe, efficacious and of good quality based on the data submitted to date, noted HSA.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

As of Tuesday, more than 175,000 individuals have received their first dose of the (Pfizer-BioNTech) Covid-19 vaccine, said MOH.

About 6,000 of these individuals have also received their second dose, and have therefore completed the full vaccination regimen. In two weeks' time, they will be adequately protected against Covid-19, noted MOH.

The Moderna vaccine requires two doses administered 28 days apart, while the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's two doses are taken 21 days apart.

Reported side effects for vaccine recipients are similar and include pain, swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle ache, fever, chills, vomiting and joint pain after vaccination.

"More vaccines from both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech will arrive over the course of the year. We will continue to monitor our supplies closely to ensure that we will have enough vaccines for all Singaporeans and long-term residents in Singapore by the third quarter of 2021," said MOH.