Covid-19: 11 private healthcare groups get HSA approval to import China’s Sinopharm vaccine

SINGAPORE — The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said that it has approved 11 applications by private healthcare groups here to bring China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine into Singapore through a Special Access Route.

In response to queries from TODAY on Friday (July 30), the authority said that the applications were from private hospitals and clinics, including those under IHH Healthcare Singapore. The approvals for the 11 applications had been given as of Wednesday.

HSA did not provide a full list of the private healthcare operators that will be offering the Sinopharm vaccine, but Raffles Medical Group previously told TODAY that it was planning to start offering the vaccine to its patients in August.

As to which of its clinics will offer the vaccine, the group said on Friday that they are: Raffles Executive Medical Centre at Raffles Hospital and Raffles Specialist at Shaw Centre Orchard.

IHH Healthcare — which owns Parkway Pantai, the largest private hospital operator here — also told TODAY before that it was still working out the details and could not provide an indicative date for when it would start administering the vaccine.

However, Parkway Shenton — a brand under IHH Healthcare — has placed a notice on its website inviting patients to register their interest in the Sinopharm vaccine.

The website did not state which of its clinics would be offering it, only that it would be available at “selected locations”. It added that more details would be provided “in due time”.

HSA said that the risks of using Covid-19 vaccines approved under the Special Access Route are “fully borne by the doctor and vaccine recipient”.

The Special Access Route is a scheme where private healthcare providers may apply to HSA to bring in Covid-19 vaccines that are on the Emergency Use Listing of World Health Organization.

Sinovac, also from China, was allowed for use here under this route.

Sinopharm, which has an efficacy rate of 79 per cent, was validated by WHO for emergency use on May 7. Sinovac, which has an efficacy rate of 51 per cent, was validated on June 1.

Both are two-dose inactivated virus vaccines, which are different from messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

To date, only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been approved by HSA for use under the national vaccination exercise here.