Singapore will get its first highest-level biosafety containment lab ready by 2025 - the first such facility in South-east Asia - to prepare for the next big biological threat or pandemic, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday.
Some $90 million will be spent to upgrade the capabilities of national defence research agency DSO National Laboratories to Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4), the topmost level of biosafety precautions globally, said Dr Ng during the debate over the Ministry of Defence's (Mindef) budget in Parliament.
Viruses are classified into Risk Groups 1 to 4, according to their transmissibility and lethality. Current facilities within DSO National Laboratories can safely handle Risk Group 3 viruses like those that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Covid-19, said Mindef.
"Many developed countries already have labs with the highest biosafety level - BSL-4 - built many years ago. Since 2015, countries in Asia like China, Japan and (South) Korea have also built such BSL-4 labs. In Asean, there are none," said Dr Ng.
Other BSL-4 laboratories around the world include The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, and the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas.
"Mindef will therefore invest about $90 million for DSO to work with MOH (Ministry of Health) to upgrade our facilities within DSO to the highest biosafety level," said Dr Ng.
BSL-4 labs require more stringent levels of air separation and must have the ability to quickly shut down and isolate the facility when needed, he noted.
Upgrading the DSO National Laboratories facilities will give Singapore its own capabilities to safely handle, assess and develop countermeasures against more lethal and infectious viruses in future, said Mindef.
The lab will be used to isolate and culture new emerging infectious disease pathogens and known high-risk pathogens, to develop diagnostics and solutions such as antibody therapeutics.
Dr Ng said DSO National Laboratories will work with MOH to carry out the upgrading of its facilities, and bring in third-party and overseas experts to advise on the entire process, including design, construction and the periodic validation of the systems.
The DSO National Laboratories are under the purview of Mindef.
The upgraded biosafety laboratory will comply with MOH's National Biosafety Standards for Maximum Containment Facilities, established in May 2019, covering the design principles, management and operating policies, good practices and performance testing, said Mindef.
A qualified consultant with relevant experience will also be engaged to ensure the new facility adheres to international standards and guidelines from the World Health Organisation and the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new BSL-4 laboratory will have enhanced safety features, such as requiring all staff to don personal protective equipment like positive-pressure protective suits.
Other biosafety measures to prevent leakage of pathogens from the new lab include double high-efficiency particulate air (Hepa) filtration and exhaust purging, double pipe containment and sterilisation of liquids before discharge, and heat sterilisation of all solid waste before incineration.
There will also be multiple air locks and negative pressure in the laboratories to ensure directional air flow, and an air corridor around the maximum containment facility to serve as a safety barrier.
In addition, the lab will have safe shutdown capabilities so that if a mechanical failure occurs, neutral pressure will be maintained with no air movement out of the facility.
In his speech, Dr Ng said that future pandemics or biological attacks may be worse than Covid-19, and Singapore cannot "outsource" its response or call another country for help.
"It would be foolish to depend on others, and we need to build capabilities within Singapore to protect ourselves," he said.
Dr Ng said that over the years, Singapore has kept up investments to maintain 40 bio-personnel in DSO National Laboratories and about 250 doctors and paramedical staff in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Medical Corps. After the Sars outbreak in 2003, more secure biological labs were also built in DSO National Laboratories.
This long-term and steady investment in biodefence and medical capabilities was vindicated by Mindef's and the SAF's ability to respond quickly to Covid-19, such as when DSO managed to get polymerase chain reaction tests ready in January last year, the same month the virus entered Singapore.
Said Dr Ng: "Had we not learnt the right lessons following Sars, sarin, anthrax, and other lethal chemical and biological incidents over the years, DSO would not have had the facilities, let alone the people and expertise to produce tests and other breakthroughs, when Covid-19 invaded our shores."
