Government authorises BioNTech vaccine

The government on Monday confirmed that it had accepted a recommendation from its expert panel on vaccines to approve a jab made by Germany’s BioNTech, and distributed by the mainland’s Fosun Pharma.

It’s the first vaccine approved for use in the SAR and a million doses are expected to arrive in the second half of next month.

The government had originally planned to give elderly care home residents the coronavirus vaccines produced by mainland company Sinovac. But the Sinovac jabs could not be delivered on time, leaving the authorities with no choice but to use the BioNTech vaccine, which was recommended by an expert panel earlier this month for emergency use.

Earlier this month, Norway flagged up some possible concerns about giving the BioNTech vaccine to very frail and elderly people, following over 20 deaths. The country, though, has reportedly not changed its guidelines on the vaccine.

In a statement on Monday, the government said it was aware of the concerns and asked for more information.

“The Advisory Panel also noted reports of suspected adverse events in some overseas countries after administration of the Fosun Pharma/BioNTech vaccine. According to the information released by the relevant authorities, some common side effects of the vaccines, such as fever or nausea, may affect individuals who already have serious illnesses and are particularly weak.

“In response to the recommendations of the Advisory Panel, the Department of Health has requested the vaccine supplier to provide the relevant information,” it said.

The BioNTech vaccine is a new type of vaccine that use messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA. This is a type of genetic code that instructs the body to make the spiked part of the Covid-19 virus, which in turn tricks the body into creating antibodies that can fight the real virus.

The Sinovac vaccine is more traditional in nature, using a deactivated virus to produce an immune response.

In addition to BioNTech and Sinovac, the SAR government has also ordered a vaccine jointly developed by Oxford University and Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

The Oxford vaccine is different again. It has been produced from a chimpanzee common cold virus that has been rendered harmless but with genetic information from Covid-19 added into it to bring about antibody production.