Thailand plans November human testing for potential coronavirus vaccine

 

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai researchers plan to begin human trials of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus in November and are preparing 10,000 doses, a senior official said on Sunday, aiming for a vaccine that could be ready for use by late next year.

 

Following favourable results in trials on primates, the next step is to manufacture doses for human trials, said Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University vaccine development program.

 

“At first we were going to send them in June, but it was not easy to plan everything,” Kiat told a news conference.

 

There are no approved vaccines for the virus that causes COVID-19, but 19 candidates are being trailed in humans globally. China is leading the race, with an experimental vaccine by Sinovac Biotech.

 

Thailand's first facility should complete production in October and send the products to a second facility, which should finish by November, he said. Originally the earliest target was September, but Kiat said not enough vaccine can be ready by then.

 

Facilities in San Diego and Vancouver will produce 10,000 doses for the trials for 5,000 people. The first group, aged 18 to 60, will receive different doses of the vaccine, he said.

 

The trials will not accept volunteers "until we receive approval from the Thai Food and Drug Administration and an ethics committee,” Kiat said.

 

Thai company BioNet-Asia is preparing its facilities for large-scale manufacturing if the trials prove successful, he said.

 

“If everything goes according to plan, the vaccine will be ready for Thailand in the third or fourth quarter next year,” Kiat said.

 

Thailand on Sunday had a total of 3,217 confirmed infections, with no local transmissions reported in over a month, and 58 COVID-19 deaths.

 

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by William Mallard)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-13

 

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'Chula-Covid-19 vaccine trial on monkeys a success but human trial awaits FDA green light'

By The Nation

 

 

The Chulalongkorn research team developing a vaccine against Covid-19 revealed on Sunday that experiments on monkeys had been successful but human testing might be possible only by the end of the year.

 

They also have to wait for FDA approval while saying that volunteers could be signed up in September.

 

Prof Suttipong Wacharasindhu, director of Chulalongkorn Hospital, and Prof Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of Chulalongkorn's vaccine research centre, addressed on Sunday (July 12) a press conference on the progress of vaccine development.

 

Prof Kiat said that Chula-Covid19 is an mRNA vaccine produced from the genetic material of some new strains of the coronavirus. When parts of this genetic material are injected into the body, they will be transformed into proteins to stimulate the creation of antibodies that would help fight the virus. Blood test results after the second vaccination of Chula-Covid19 at the National Primate Research Centre, Chulalongkorn University, for two weeks found that every monkey that received the vaccine had an increased level of immunity to a very high level of immunity, exceeding the expected level. However, injections in humans might not have the same result, and it may cause the auto-immune action to be approximately 70 times lower than in monkeys, they added.

 

 

"Within the next week, we will select two vaccines which are slightly different in genetic parts to deliver to two production plants in foreign countries. The first plant will produce a vaccine biopsy, expected to be complete in early October. After that, we will ask the factory No. 2 to produce vaccine-coated fat parts around November 2020. Then we will proceed with injections in phase 1 and the next phases. We have prepared about 10,000 doses for the volunteers, for an estimated 5,000 people. If the test is successful, the vaccine would be ready for use in people around the third or fourth quarter of next year.”

 

Dr Kiat said further that the human trial will be divided into three phases. The first phase would be by the end of 2020. The test is divided into different age groups. The first group would be aged 18-60 years, consisting of 75 people, receiving doses of at least 10, 30 and 100 micrograms of vaccines for each group of 15 people. They would start with 10 doses of 10mcg first.

 

"If it is effective and safe on six people, another 15 volunteers will receive a 30mcg vaccine and another 15 people will receive 100mcg of vaccine. If it is effective, a further test will be conducted in almost the same amount as the first phase. If all of this is safe, the third test will be conducted for the next 75 volunteers, aged 61-80."

 

Currently, there are around 18 mRNA vaccine developers around the world, but four of them are six months ahead of Thailand.

 

Therefore, it is expected that one reseach will be successful at the beginning of next year and will be certified by the Food and Drug Administration of America and Europe. By then, the Thai FDA would pass the human trial in phase 3, it will reduce the time required for this phase by 9-12 months, speeding up availability of the vaccine. However, he said the government should be prepared to purchase vaccines from foreign countries as well.

 

"I would like to emphasise that we have not announced the voluntary participation at this time because we have to wait for FDA approval as well as approval from the Human Ethics Committee. Initially, it is expected that the official announcement seeking volunteers would be made around September. We must ensure safety first. No Thais should be at risk," Dr Kiat said.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30391178

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-07-13

 

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I wonder how they expect to test whether this vaccine is effective or not once it's rolled out.

 

Maybe they will mainly accept applications from those who travel the world a lot?

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

I wonder how they expect to test whether this vaccine is effective or not once it's rolled out.

 

Maybe they will mainly accept applications from those who travel the world a lot?

exactly, maybe we are about to see Thailand infect themselves to test it lol

 

reality is - it can only be tested where the virus is spreading and Thailand claims no new detected infections which is likely true since they don't test anyone - Thai version of "track and trace" ........... "don't test"

 

and there is no way I am letting a vaccine developed in Thailand near me - approved or otherwise, some methods used in this rush to have a winner are very dodgy from what I've been reading - altering cell DNA in an unsafe way using  unproven methods - basically making their own cancer cells and they have no idea what happens to them over the long term

sounds great  !   who want's to be the 1st volunteer ... ?

Trials started in Australia on 2nd July. 

https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/australia-covid-19-vaccine-trial/

36 minutes ago, steven100 said:

sounds great  !   who want's to be the 1st volunteer ... ?

The 1st Minister ... ?

Someone's late to the party... there is a decent chance AstraZeneca's vaccine will be ready by September or October, and Moderna shortly after. I hope, least!

the world is waiting for a successful covid-19 vaccine. best of luck.

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

sounds great  !   who want's to be the 1st volunteer ... ?

1. Anutin

2. steven100

 

Don’t count on me. For Thais only.

7 minutes ago, CLS said:

1. Anutin

2. steven100

 

Don’t count on me. For Thais only.

i think you should be the first ...

5 minutes ago, steven100 said:

i think you should be the first ...

Thanks for being so generous. But I don’t qualify and for once don’t feel discriminated at all.

7 minutes ago, steven100 said:

i think you should be the first ...

Come on Steven, show us what a man you are by being the first to volunteer.

Just think what your idol would say.????

20 minutes ago, CLS said:

1. Anutin

2. steven100

 

Don’t count on me. For Thais only.

Brown envelope, & an exception'll be made.

 

C'mon....'take one for the team'!!

Just had a thought....

 

How about POTY volunteers themselves, then they could crow about it on here?

 

And if it were to go wrong......

 

????

2 minutes ago, faraday said:

Brown envelope, & an exception'll be made.

 

C'mon....'take one for the team'!!

Team spirit is a good cause, but I need your help with the envelope payee. 

who will they test it on?they keep saying there r no cases here?if its not ready till the end of next yr what is the point?it will be gone then,we see a massive 100% increase in cases and a drop of deaths at 70% from the hi point several mnths back,this clearly indicates the virus is burning out in terms of its ability to knock you down ,its weakening as it replicates ,look at the figs,just like SARS covid 2 did.i can hear the screams fromCNN already

18 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Come on Steven, show us what a man you are by being the first to volunteer.

Just think what your idol would say.????

I don't care about what anyone would say ....  there's no chance in hell they're gunna come within a mile of me with that stuff ....   if covid don't kill ya that stuff will .... lol

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand plans November human testing for potential coronavirus vaccine

 

The first group of experimental subjects have been examined for the “Human” criteria of the screening tests….but the results have been inconclusive.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 20205 yr by Hayduke

30 minutes ago, faraday said:

Just had a thought....

 

How about POTY volunteers themselves, then they could crow about it on here?

 

And if it were to go wrong......

 

????

Forget crows, the vultures would be circling overhead, waiting for a meal.

2 hours ago, smedly said:

exactly, maybe we are about to see Thailand infect themselves to test it lol

 

reality is - it can only be tested where the virus is spreading and Thailand claims no new detected infections which is likely true since they don't test anyone - Thai version of "track and trace" ........... "don't test"

 

and there is no way I am letting a vaccine developed in Thailand near me - approved or otherwise, some methods used in this rush to have a winner are very dodgy from what I've been reading - altering cell DNA in an unsafe way using  unproven methods - basically making their own cancer cells and they have no idea what happens to them over the long term

The British are way ahead, Oxford university has along with it's supporters begun testing a vaccine in Humans that was developed from an earlier similar vaccine that was used for a similar strain to C19 .

The trials are so far looking so good that production facilities are gearing up to produce over. a million doses.

These companies involved would not be gearing up now if they thought it was going to flunk.

The chinese are testing a vaccine on their military but they are uncertain as to dose strength and side effects.

The Oxford university vaccine looks to be the best of the bunch so far.

I have had plenty of time as we all have to read up about this demon and if you care to google the info on the vaccines there is plenty on the Oxford vaccine.

That's where I would put my money, I would not trust dodgy countries, and I have my doubts about WHO and chinese vaccines.

If anyone should be able to produce a vaccine China should be way ahead but Oxfords one looks to be a winner.

Lets hope so , I want to return to LOS but do not for-.see that for some time now .

I think Oxford is hoping to expand trials soon and have this ready by mid year 2021.

I do not think the doors will open anywhere until then, and feel sorry for the airlines that will not be flying A380's full for some time, maybe never, some one said they are destined to be beer cans.

We can only hope Oxfords on the Ball.

Cheers all.

The writer forgot to mention:
Inovio
Janssen
Merck
Sanofi
Modena
Pfizer

and

J&J

 

I wouldn’t bet against any of those names 

24 minutes ago, chiman said:

The writer forgot to mention:
Inovio
Janssen
Merck
Sanofi
Modena
Pfizer

and

J&J

 

I wouldn’t bet against any of those names 

Not forgotten, not mentioned on purpose. All part of the PRopaganda tactics.

Looks like the coconut monkeys have a new job

not sure the monkey trials are going as well as expected ....

3 to 4 months to get 10,000 doses and arrange the testing??

The tourist industry and related thai incomes are decimated.

Isnt this urgent.

And they have to go to america to get the vaccine made?

<deleted>, did they not know a few months ago that the vaccine would be necessary.

Where was all the planning?

On this performance, they will likely only be able to produce a fraction of what is needed by late next year.

They didnt say anything about that yet.

Edited July 13, 20205 yr by jojothai
Add words

OK but first they have to find the brave souls willing to try a vaccine developed in Thailand despite Thailand being such an international giant in developing medical technology.  I wonder when the Thailand space program will announce their planned Mars landing?

5 hours ago, ukrules said:

I wonder how they expect to test whether this vaccine is effective or not once it's rolled out.

 

Maybe they will mainly accept applications from those who travel the world a lot?

Or Thais returning from countries showing infections.

6 minutes ago, Duckster said:

OK but first they have to find the brave souls willing to try a vaccine developed in Thailand despite Thailand being such an international giant in developing medical technology.  I wonder when the Thailand space program will announce their planned Mars landing?

They say no thais should be at risk.

Who is going to take it for them??

Edited July 13, 20205 yr by jojothai
Correction

No thanks. I'll take my chances without it.