How Singapore Plans to Keep Vaccine Manufacturing Ready for Disease X

Singapore wants to practise making vaccines before the next pandemic, rather than build every capability after a new pathogen appears. Its proposed mRNA influenza pilot would serve a peacetime purpose while helping develop adaptable vaccine production in Singapore. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung outlined the plan in September 2026 as part of preparations for a future “Disease X”—not a disease for which this pilot already provides a vaccine.24

Why start with influenza?

The proposed pilot would support the development and production of mRNA influenza vaccines in Singapore. The immediate product has a peacetime use; the preparedness value is the experience gained in developing vaccines and maintaining a manufacturing process that could be adapted when a new threat emerges. Singapore has said it hopes Hilleman Laboratories can support the initiative, but the pilot remains a plan, not proof that an mRNA pandemic vaccine can already be produced at scale.234

Singapore’s broader approach also includes partnerships with vaccine companies and research organisations. Its PrepVax programme is intended to organise vaccine-development capabilities across public and private institutions and sustain those connections so they are available during an outbreak.220

What Hilleman’s Ebola project tests

Hilleman’s Bundibugyo ebolavirus project is a separate vaccine effort, not an mRNA influenza vaccine. With up to US$8.5 million in support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Singapore-based organisation is developing and manufacturing doses of an experimental candidate for clinical trials. It uses an rVSV platform also used for a licensed vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus; that does not mean the Bundibugyo candidate itself is approved.7812

The project illustrates why technology transfer matters. If early-phase trials succeed, the partners say they will transfer the candidate’s technology to a large-scale manufacturer to produce additional doses. Clinical development, successful trials and larger-scale production are distinct steps; none is assured simply because trial doses can be made.12

The international steps Singapore cannot take alone

Manufacturing readiness helps only if a threat is identified quickly. Global surveillance and prompt sharing of pathogen data can give researchers the information needed to begin a response. CEPI’s 100-day mission is an aspiration to develop a vaccine against a future Disease X in that timeframe—not a guarantee of approval or widespread availability within 100 days.722

Review is another potential bottleneck. Singapore has proposed a larger role for its Health Sciences Authority in international efforts to assess new vaccines during global emergencies. That is a proposed contribution to regulatory cooperation, not a replacement for evaluating vaccines.517

The strategy therefore links work done in peacetime—such as the flu pilot and PrepVax partnerships—to a response that would require countries and institutions to share data, transfer technology and cooperate on review. Hilleman’s Ebola candidate shows how some of those steps could connect, while its unapproved status shows how much must still happen before an experimental vaccine can be deployed.71220