Duke-NUS scientists to start testing COVID-19 vaccine this year; other vaccine developments

March 27, 2020

As the search for a vaccine for the new coronavirus progresses, scientists from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore are planning for testing to begin as soon as this year – Duke-NUS has teamed up with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and other international partners to plan a clinical trial. Other countries are similarly scrambling to identify vaccine candidates against COVID-19, which has already claimed more than 21,000 lives.

However, Singapore’s Health Minister Gan Kim Yong claims – citing an estimate from the World Health Organization – that the earliest a vaccine will be ready would be in 2021, even though international parties have successfully isolated and cultured the virus at this time.

Meanwhile, a COVID-19 therapeutic workgroup, comprising of members from various hospitals across different disciplines and the Health Science Authority (HSA), has been set up in Singapore to look at using repurposed drugs with antiviral activity to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus. These include anti-HIV drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir, Interferon Beta-1B and hydroxychloroquine.

According to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Chief health scientist, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, a small number of coronavirus patients in China and other places are currently being treated with Lopinavir and Ritonavir; but the MOH will need to see the results of the trials to determine the drugs’ efficacy.

“The results so farhave looked quite promising,” Professor Tan had said.

In addition, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and the Singapore Blood Bank, have started to collect/study convalescent blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. As of March 24, 155 patients in Singapore have recovered from COVID-19.

Minister Gan concludes, “We have to plan on the basis that COVID-19 will be with us for a long while, maybe till the end of the year or longer, and ensure that we have the resources and capabilities to see us through.”