SINGAPORE - General practitioner Jipson Quah, who has been accused of conspiring to submit fake vaccination information to the Ministry of Health, has been placed on leave by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the pharmaceutical company said on Tuesday (Jan 25).

Quah is listed as a director of PPD Global Central Lab, another biomedical company in Singapore. PPD, an American company with offices around the world, is owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

"The allegations do not involve Dr Quah's role as a director of global central laboratories within Thermo Fisher's clinical research business... Dr Quah has been placed on leave while we review the allegations," said the pharmaceutical company in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Thermo Fisher is known to supply certain Covid-19 tests to Singapore, including one that is being used to detect the Omicron variant.

The police on Sunday released a statement saying that Quah and his clinic assistant Thomas Chua had been arrested, along with Iris Koh, the founder of anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide.

Preliminary investigations found that Quah, 33, and Chua, 40, purportedly worked together to submit false vaccination data, while Koh, 46, was believed to have referred clients to them.

The two men were charged last Friday (Jan 21) with abetment by conspiracy to commit cheating, while Koh was charged on Sunday with criminal conspiracy to cheat.