On 12 January 2024, the Health Sciences Authority issued an update on products found and reported by overseas regulators to contain potent ingredients that are prohibited and may lead to side effects.
On 18 January 2024, the World Health Organization issued new guidance on the ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health, focusing on large multimodal models (LMMs). The WHO guidance summarizes the broad applications of LMMs in the healthcare industry and includes recommendations for governments, which have the primary responsibility of setting standards for the development and deployment of LMMs, and their integration and use for public health and medical purposes.
The Singapore Association of Pharmaceutical Industries Code of Conduct has been amended to increase limits for providing hospitality in relation to food and drinks during events, and to clarify that company-branded, single-use, disposable tableware are permitted at third-party events. The revisions are effective from 1 February 2024.
On 9 January 2024, the Parliament of Singapore passed the Significant Investments Review Bill (“Bill”).
This Bill strengthens the Singapore government’s regulatory toolkit for investments in local and foreign entities that are significant to Singapore’s national security interests and ensures greater regulatory flexibility in safeguarding Singapore’s evolving national security interests. At the same time, the Bill has been designed to align with international norms and preserve Singapore’s open and investment-friendly economy.
Data is a critical asset in today’s globally connected economy. Rapidly evolving technologies have made it easier than ever for companies to collect, use and transfer data throughout the world. Yet strict data protection, privacy and cybersecurity regulation is evolving rapidly, imposing complex and often inconsistent standards. Our Global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Handbook is updated annually to help you keep up with the dynamic legal landscape. We provide detailed overviews and allow a comparative perspective of the increasingly complex and sophisticated data privacy and cybersecurity standards in over 50 countries.
The Ministry of Health has commenced an investigation into a company allegedly offering doctors healthcare awards in exchange for signing up for a promotional package.
The MOH has raised that this is a potential breach of the Healthcare Services (Advertisement) Regulations.
The Singapore government has once again recognized the importance of AI in the healthcare industry, outlining a three-pronged approach on how to harness the potential of AI in the industry.
In the long-run, the increasing use of AI would serve to deliver better diagnosis and treatment; early detection, prevention and prediction of diseases; faster drug development; and better understand the risks around intervention and how to stratify it. In the shorter term, the use of AI may help to enhance clinical decision support; increase productivity of healthcare teams; and support individuals.
The Therapeutic Products Branch of the Health Sciences Authority has provided an interim update on the progress of the eCTD implementation in Singapore following an industry consultation held between 2 May 2023 to 12 June 2023. The eCTD is a standard structured format for companies to transfer regulatory information related to therapeutic products to facilitate dossier submissions. The implementation was envisaged to take place in phases, and adoption by the industry will be on a voluntary basis during the initial roll-out.
The Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS), Singapore’s advertising standards watchdog, has found an electronics company in breach of the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice (SCAP) for greenwashing or marketing that exaggerates the sustainability of a product.
This is the ASAS’ first finding of a breach of the SCAP as a result of greenwashing. The advertising standards watchdog has previously received one other complaint about greenwashing since 2020, but the advertisement in that case was found not to have breached the SCAP.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is conducting a public consultation from 11 December 2023 to 11 January 2024 on the proposed Health Information Bill (HIB). Through the HIB, the MOH intends to establish a framework governing the safe collection, use and sharing of health information across Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem to facilitate better continuity and seamless transition of care.