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DIRECTORY OF SINGAPORE PROCESS & CHEMICALS INDUSTRIES 2021/2022
Amid the turbulence caused by the its two new vaccines, ARCT-154 and ARCT-165, transformation of IPs into clinically validated
diagnostic devices that are ready for market adoption”.
Another company, Breathonix, a spin-off from the National University of Singapore (NUS), in May 2021 received provisional authorisation in Singapore, to undergo trial at land checkpoints for its BreFence Go Covid-19 breath test system.
It is the first breath analysis system to be granted such authorisation in Singapore. The company said the breath analysis trial was being “carried out alongside the current compulsory Covid-19 antigen rapid test (ART)”.
It was reported that Breathonix was originally working on a lung cancer breathalyser test, but due to pandemic restrictions had to stop all its clinical trials. That gave the company the opportunity to switch to developing a system for Covid-19 instead.
Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore’s
success in life sciences was put in the spotlight for its enduring effort. With a strong biopharma ecosystem that has pioneered new developments in the biomedical space, the Republic had its share of attention in the race to develop solutions against the Covid-19 virus threat.
Since the start of the pandemic, several Singapore institutions and firms swung into action to develop test and antibody technologies to fight against the virus.
Duke-NUS was involved in the co- development of the ARCT-021 vaccine, previously known as the Lunar-Cov19 vaccine, with Arcturus Therapeutics of the United States. The vaccine began phase 2 clinical trials in early 2021 targeting the original or wild-type Sars-CoV-2 virus. In August 2021, Arcturus was given approval by the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to begin early-stage clinical trial for
which “will be tested together with the original ARCT-021 vaccine, ... to compare all three vaccines against one another for their safety and antibody protection”.
Home-grown biotech company Tychan which has developed a Covid-19 antibody began trial for the vaccine in December 2020. Funded by Temasek and the Economic Development Board, Tychan is also exploring “collaborations with other medical facilities in countries where Covid-19 incidence remains high”.
Diagnostics Development (DxD) Hub, part of the Innovation Cluster Programme funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), developed the RT-PCR-based Fortitude Kit for SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) detection within a month. The kit is being used in Singapore hospitals as well as in many other countries for diagnostic purposes.
The DxD Hub is a national initiative led by A*ccelerate “with the aim to accelerate the
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