US-based biotech company Arcturus Therapeutics, which is developing a Covid-19 vaccine with the Duke-NUS Medical School here, is looking at a lyophilised or freeze-dried version of its mRNA vaccine to get around cold chain challenges.

It will be testing it in upcoming trials. If successful, the product will remove the need to have special ultra-cold freezers, which are costly and not common and make it challenging to deploy the vaccine. The phase 1/2 trials for the candidate vaccine are being conducted here.

Meanwhile, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases will start enrolling Covid-19 patients for a large global trial to test monoclonal antibody treatments for the disease.