The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has today announced that they have extended the authorisation of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in adolescents of ages 12 to 15 years in Singapore. The vaccination regimen is the same as that for adults – 2 doses to be administered 21 days apart.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was granted interim authorisation under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR) for individuals aged 16 years and above in December 2020. At that time, the data in individuals aged below 16 years was not yet available. As a condition for interim authorisation under PSAR, Pfizer and BioNTech were required to continue to study the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in other subgroups and submit the relevant data for HSA’s review.

On 13 April 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an application to extend the vaccination population for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 years old to HSA. HSA’s review of the clinical data for this subgroup found that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine induced a robust immune response and demonstrated a high vaccine efficacy of 100%. This vaccine efficacy was based on the on-going Phase 3 clinical trial, which enrolled over 2,000 participants aged 12 to 15 years.

This announcement comes quite timely considering how a number of school children have tested positive for the virus. As such, vaccination can protect children and the adults around them.

As the vaccination is rolled out in phases, parents will need to wait for the government’s announcement on when those aged 12 to 15 will be able to register for vaccination. Nonetheless, parents can register their children’s interest for the vaccination at https://www.vaccine.gov.sg.

From tomorrow (19 May 2021), those aged 40 and above are able to register for their vaccinations.

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