Singapore to receive a batch of COVID-19 vaccines called “Comirnaty”; MOH says they’re same as Pfizer

The Ministry of Healthy (MOH) said that Singapore will soon be getting its hands on a batch of COVID-19 vaccines called Comirnaty, as the country prepares to beef up its supplies to get more people vaccinated as soon as possible.

In a statement released on Wednesday (23 June), MOH explained that the vaccines are the same as Pfizer-BioNTech, which is the vaccines used for the national inoculation programme.

As a matter of fact, Comirnaty even uses the same research name as Pfizer-BioNTech, which is BNT162b2, MOH pointed out.

“They are manufactured according to the same processes and procedures, and meet the same finished product specifications as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. They are similarly manufactured in Europe and shipped directly to Singapore,” the Ministry said, adding that the only difference here is in their label.

Therefore, MOH will be adjusting the HealthHub records of people who have received or will be receiving Pfizer-BioNTech or Comirnaty vaccine.

The vaccine will be labelled as Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty in the records.

In Singapore, Moderna is another mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccine that is currently being used here and has been approved by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

However, Sinovac vaccine is still not registered here and is not authorised by the HSA for use under the Pandemic Special Access Route. It can, however, be administered at 24 private healthcare clinics.

Given that the Sinovac vaccine is provided only under the Special Access Route framework, it will not be covered under the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme meant for the national vaccination programme.

Singapore aims to get half of its residents to be fully vaccinated by August and at least 75 percent by October.

As of last Saturday, more than half of the country’s population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. Nearly 36 percent have gotten both the doses of the vaccines.