A pharmaceutical company has suspended a Singaporean doctor after he was charged with conspiring with a notorious anti-vaxxer to falsify reports to obtain fraudulent vaccination records.
Jipson Quah was placed on leave by PPD Global Central Lab, the company announced today, following accusations that he conspired to cheat the system along with his assistant and the head of an online anti-vax group.
“The allegations do not involve Dr Quah’s role as a director of global central laboratories within Thermo Fisher’s clinical research business,” the American-owned lab, Thermo Fisher Scientific, told The Straits Times today. “Dr Quah has been placed on leave while we review the allegations.”
Quah, 33, and his assistant Thomas Chua, 40, were arrested Friday along with Iris Koh, an anti vaxxer already under investigation, who are being held while the probe continues.
The police said their preliminary investigation concluded that Koh referred her followers to the two men “to induce MOH to issue the Certificate of Vaccination against COVID-19 in the TraceTogether application.”
The police said Sunday that Koh was charged with conspiring to cheat the system, and the two men with abetting that scheme. Koh also faces charges of instigating others to block public servants from doing their work.
Eight other individuals are also under investigation for their alleged involvement.
The police said the two men worked together to submit false information to indicate their clients had taken COVID-19 vaccines they had not.
A tip last month led the ministry to determine that Quah, who works as a registered medical practitioner at Wan Medical Clinic in Bedok North, had allegedly submitted false positive ART results to a national health portal so that unvaccinated clients would be labeled as recovered and exempted from rules affecting the unvaccinated.
Those rules have been a primary objection of Koh, who was already being investigated for disrupting operations at pediatric vaccination centers and for flooding public hotlines.
The ministry said the clinic allowed patients to submit pre-recorded videos and photos showing they had tested themselves instead of supervising actual legit tests.
Koh allegedly referred clients to Quah and even “suggested administering something in lieu of the vaccine to patients,” the police said.
The ministry announced Sunday that it would suspend and revoke ART testing authority for four clinics that employ or are managed by Quah: Wan Medical Clinic, Mayfair Medical Clinic, Mayfair Medical Clinic (Yishun Chong Pang) and Ong Clinic & Surgery (Yishun).
Quah was also suspended from his part-time job as a laboratory director at the Diagnostics Development Hub. He was said to be involved in 12 other companies including clinics and a healthcare consultancy firm.
If found guilty, they face up to three years in jail and a fine.
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