Astrazeneca partners up with Thailand for vaccine manufacture in Southeast Asia
Thailand has announced it will partner up with Astrazeneca to scale up production of its potential coronavirus vaccine, as the pharmaceuticals company seeks to strengthen manufacture of the drug further afield.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health today said it will roll out “large scale manufacturing” of the potential Covid vaccine at Siam Bioscience in Bangkok to boost “broad, equitable and timely access to the potential vaccine in Southeast Asia and beyond”.
Astrazeneca will provide the potential vaccine at no profit during the pandemic and will work with Siam Bioscience to set up the manufacturing facilities in Thailand, the ministry added.
Thailand, which has a population of more than 69m, will begin vaccinating in the country in the first half of 2021 if the vaccine proves successful.
The country’s fresh deal with the British-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant marks the first large-scale vaccine development in Southeast Asia.
“Defeating Covid-19 is — and needs to be — a global endeavour [with] the work of scientists, multilaterals and business as well as governments,” said Brian Davidson, British ambassador to Thailand.
Thailand has fared relatively well during the pandemic, reporting just 3,641 cases and 59 deaths since the initial outbreak.
“Public-private partnerships like this are the only way to halt this pandemic and we look forward to deepening our collaboration in the interest of public health,” said Jo Feng, senior vice president of the Asia area at Astrazeneca.
“Broad, equitable and timely access is critical to the success of any Covid-19 vaccine. Today is an important step toward that goal.”
Back on track
It comes after Astrazeneca last month temporarily halted trials of its potential vaccine due to a possible adverse reaction in a trial participant.
The international clinical trial was paused for just over a week before a review by the trial’s independent safety review committee and national regulators concluded it was safe to resume inoculating new participants.
The brief hiatus fuelled fears that the leading drug in the global race for a vaccine would dampen hopes for a vaccine rollout by Christmas.
Astrazeneca has signed deals with countries around the world to produce the vaccine if it proves successful in clinical trials.
In June the drugmaker committed to supply Europe with 400m doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine before the end of 2020.
It has also inked deals with the UK, the US and vaccine alliances to supply 700m doses, plus an additional deal to distribute 1bn doses of the possible vaccine to low and middle-income countries via the Serum Institute of India.
While initial trial results showed the potential vaccine induced a “strong response” from the immune system, Astrazeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot has previously said the vaccine may only protect patients from the virus for a year.