SINGAPORE - Singapore has to continue to support and stimulate the development of new technology platforms to produce Covid-19 vaccines faster and possibly with greater efficacy despite the ethical issues surrounding it.

This was the view of Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, the chief health scientist at the Ministry of Health (MOH), at a two-day virtual public conference that began on Thursday (June 17). The event is being held to mark the 20th anniversary of the Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC).

It was set up to address the ethical, legal and social issues arising from biomedical science research in Singapore, and makes recommendations to the Government.

Ethical issues surround the development of new vaccines, especially how they will be tested on people, after effective and safe vaccines have already been made available.

But vaccine development remains paramount, to tackle the Covid-19 variants or perhaps target a class of viruses rather than just a specific one, going beyond the current first generation of vaccines, Prof Tan said.

"I think in basic research, in pre-clinical stages, these (ethical issues) may not be as salient, but once we come into human studies, these will come to the fore. But I do think that if carried out under properly controlled and regulated conditions, these (studies) should be allowed to proceed, so that we can continue to build up our body of knowledge about more effective ways of dealing with this particular virus," he said.

The BAC is chaired by retired chief district judge Richard Magnus, who was on a chat taking questions from attendees at the event, along with Prof Tan. Others on the panel were Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, Singapore's director of medical services; and Prof Lee Eng Hin, emeritus consultant in orthopaedic surgery at the National University Hospital, who is also a member of the BAC.

In the first Q&A session on Thursday, the panel highlighted a few key areas with potential ethical issues that the committee will need to tackle in the years ahead.

There is, for instance, the question of maximising human potential by doing more in pregnancy and early childhood so that young people can have the best trajectory of health.

Another area is precision health where data can be brought together to generate insights, such as to identify individuals who might be at a higher risk of disease.

There will also be issues in new biotherapeutics, such as RNA, DNA and genetic therapies, which may help to tackle diseases which have been resistant to current modes of treatment.

Ethical issues such as the equity of access must be carefully considered. The cost of such new technologies can be quite high, and it is possible that such clinical services could become accessible only to those who can pay for them, Prof Mak said.

With data being collected for a variety of reasons and artificial intelligence technologies being applied to them, there is also a need to define the ethical use of the data and how confidentiality is preserved, he said.

"There are vulnerabilities every time we collect data... the risk of cyber hacks and the stealing of data is a real one," he said.

In areas such as genome editing, this could also have a lot of implications, and the impact on future generations is still unknown, Prof Lee added.

About the BAC

The BAC was established by the Cabinet to address the ethical, legal and social issues arising from biomedical sciences research in Singapore. It has 15 members from diverse backgrounds such as law, biomedical research, medicine, philosophy, sociology and education as well as representatives from religious groups and the media.

The committee focuses on three main areas: the protection of the rights and welfare of individuals; public education and the source of information on bioethical issues; and identifying broad principles to govern the ethical, legal and social implications of human biology research.

Key milestones

December 2000: BAC is established.

July 2002: Then Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan announces the Government's acceptance of BAC's recommendations on human stem cell research and cloning.

July 2010: BAC organises and hosts the 10th World Congress of Bioethics.

April 2012: BAC chairman Richard Magnus becomes first Singaporean appointed to Unesco's International Bioethics Committee (IBC) for the 2012-2015 term.

November 2013: Singapore is elected as a member of Unesco's Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) at the 37th Session of the Unesco General Conference for the 2013-2017 term.

October 2017: Singapore is re-elected as a member of IGBC for the 2018-2021 term, and re-elected as Rapporteur to IGBC for the 2018-2019 term.

February 2020: BAC member Professor Lee Eng Hin is appointed as a member of IBC for the 2020-2023 term. He succeeds Mr Magnus as Singapore's representative on the Unesco body.