Thailand orders a further 35 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

[snoop1130]

Thailand orders a further 35 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

By Chayut Setboonsarng and Patpicha Tanakasempipat

 

Chief nurse nurse Sam Foster holds a vial of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Britain January 4, 2021. Steve Parsons/Pool via REUTERS

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday his country had ordered an additional 35 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine, bringing its total vaccine pipeline to 63 million doses.

 

After managing to largely contain community spread of the virus for months, a cluster of cases in December linked to migrant workers and a gambling den has led to infections in over half of Thailand's provinces and a new round of restrictions.

 

The Southeast Asian country, which has reported a total of 8,966 COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths, aims to inoculate at least half of its 70 million population.

 

"Today, we made an additional order with AstraZenca for 35 million doses," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told a briefing.

 

In November, the government reserved 26 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Oxford University vaccine, which would be produced by Thai firm, Siam Bioscience, for local use and export.

 

The country will receive delivery from AstraZeneca ahead of schedule before the second quarter, Kiattaphum Wongrachit, permanent health secretary, said in a statement.

 

Thailand has also ordered 2 million doses from China's Sinovac Biotech and expects the delivery of 200,000 doses next month.

 

The first delivery of the Sinovac vaccine will be administered among field workers in highly controlled areas like Samut Sakhon and Rayong, and vulnerable groups, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said, indicating the main areas where there have been clusters in the recent outbreak.

 

"There is a budget of 1.22 billion baht ($40.7 million) for procurement of the 2 million doses," he said, adding 1.8 million doses will be delivered by April.

 

Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd., a unit of Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, invested $515 million in Sinovac in December.

 

Thailand's locally developed vaccine is set to enter the first phase of human trials in May, said Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Chulalongkorn University vaccine development programme, adding that he expects results for phase two in September.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-05

 

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[YetAnother]

6 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

bringing its total vaccine pipeline to 63 million doses.

half way there; assuming the usual thai supply chain, in this case the end point being a jab of actually effective vaccine 

[ourmanflint]

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

[Phuketshrew]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd., a unit of Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group

Says it all really .... Vaccines from 7/11 anyone?

[RotBenz8888]

1 hour ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

Yes, what about the expected vaccine hub? 

[Phulublub]

1 hour ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Yes, what about the expected vaccine hub? 

Maybe these 35 million are coming from the AZ/Thai production facility.

 

PH

[Virt]

2 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

 

Hopefully Siam Bioscience get the job done so Thailand can manufacture enough vaccines for their own need and then start exporting, but it's not an easy task. 

[ourmanflint]

32 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

Maybe these 35 million are coming from the AZ/Thai production facility.

 

PH

Unlikely. These are coming direct from AZ in Europe or India, Thailand is not going to ab able to fulfil this kind of supply

[Mr Meeseeks]

Big pharma, big money.

 

And in the end, that is all it is all about.

[kebabby]

17 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Big pharma, big money.

 

And in the end, that is all it is all about.

Astrazeneca are doing it as a no-loss and no-profit exercise. My friend in the UK is in charge of compliance systems over this.

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 minutes ago, kebabby said:

Astrazeneca are doing it as a no-loss and no-profit exercise. My friend in the UK is in charge of compliance systems over this.

That's not the way things work here though mate.

[rbkk]

2 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Unlikely. These are coming direct from AZ in Europe or India, Thailand is not going to ab able to fulfil this kind of supply

Production has begun, at the Thai facility, with a yearly target of 200 Million doses. It was reported here yesterday. 

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by rbkk
added link

[Jingthing]

19 minutes ago, rbkk said:

Production has begun, at the Thai facility, with a yearly target of 200 Million doses. It was reported here yesterday. 

 

200 million or 2 million?

In any case assuming Thailand will be doing production under COVAX agreements probably most is for export. 

[shdmn]

7 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

I believe 200 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are being produced in Thailand.  However, I also read that only 20 million of those are reserved for domestic use for some reason.  So sounds like it's mostly being done for export and profit.  Also, it is going to take them some time to ramp up production.  It's apparently not easy to produce this stuff in high volume.

 

I am not sure what these more recent announcements have to do with previous announcements.  If it means they are ramping up local production further, reserving more doses for domestic use, or if these additional doses are being imported.

Edited January 5, 2021 by shdmn

[dave s]

7 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

bringing its total vaccine pipeline to 63 million doses

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covid-coronavirus.html

 

    "Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the population needed

    to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to banish it. ... Recently, a figure to

    whom millions of Americans look for guidance — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an

    adviser to both the Trump administration and the incoming Biden

    administration — has begun incrementally raising his herd-immunity

    estimate. ... Hard as it may be to hear, he said, he believes that it may take

    close to 90 percent immunity to bring the virus to a halt — almost as much

    as is needed to stop a measles outbreak."
 

90% of 66 million people is just under 60 million. 2 injections means 120 million doses. So Thailand has so far arranged for about 52% of what it would take  to matter.

 

Biden announced a goal of 100 million doses (50 million people) administered in the first 100 days. So far they have managed less than half of that. Suppose that the backwoods generals here could manage half that rate. That's just under 9 months to reach the safe level of 90%. Starting in May, that means January or February of next year.

Edited January 5, 2021 by dave s

[SCOTT FITZGERSLD]

great news. i hope this vaccine will be available also for sale also for farang.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by SCOTT FITZGERSLD

[Kadilo]

4 hours ago, kebabby said:

Astrazeneca are doing it as a no-loss and no-profit exercise. My friend in the UK is in charge of compliance systems over this.

Isn’t that just for UK market?

[ourmanflint]

1 hour ago, Kadilo said:

Isn’t that just for UK market?

It's worldwide for the duration of the pandemic as far as I am aware

[Kadilo]

7 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

It's worldwide for the duration of the pandemic as far as I am aware

You are correct. I just read an article that said it was for non profit basis to low to middle income countries. 

[Spilornis]

I

10 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

It's worldwide for the duration of the pandemic as far as I am aware

correct

they are hoping the money will come from future booster shots like the annual flu vaccine. Even if the make a fifty cents a shot that could add around a billion to the bottom line each year or two.

[shdmn]

46 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

It's worldwide for the duration of the pandemic as far as I am aware

Yes, I believe those are the terms that anyone who agrees to manufactures this needs to agree to.  

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Cabinet acknowledges procurement of 63 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Thais

 

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - A meeting of cabinet ministers has acknowledged the procurement of 63 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Thai people this year.

 

The Government Spokesman, Anucha Burapachaisri, has advised the community that the cabinet meeting today acknowledged the procurement of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Thailand is to purchase 2 million doses from Sinovac Biotech, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company. The vaccine for Thai people must be registered with the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China and receive approval from Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) will be in charge of delivering the vaccine doses. The Department of Disease Control is in charge of the vaccine’s procurement and its distribution to the people. The budget to purchase the 2 million doses is 1.228 billion baht, and they will be delivered to Thailand as soon as possible.

 

The first lot of 200,000 doses will arrive in Thailand next month. The first delivery of vaccine will be given to health workers who are on the front line in high-risk areas of treatment of COVID-19 patients. They include some 20,000 personnel in Samut Sakhon, Rayong and Chonburi provinces and some 180,000 people in high-risk groups and other vulnerable groups. Another lot of 800,000 doses will arrive in March. The first group will then receive their second dose of the vaccine, or 200,000 doses in total. The remaining 600,000 doses will be administered to people in high-risk areas in the western and southern regions, as well as medical personnel and volunteers. In April, Thailand will receive 1 million vaccine doses, and they will be administered to 600,000 people in the second group and 400,000 other workers.

 

In addition, Thailand will receive 26 million doses from AstraZeneca in mid-2021. Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, has approved an additional procurement of 35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, to protect at least half the total population. As a result, Thailand will dispense 63 million doses of the vaccine in all areas of the population this year.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-01-05

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[starky]

7 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

That's not the way things work here though mate.

Especially when you have CP involved and they are producing vaccine for "export" ????

[seesip]

So when will the additional 35 million AZ doses be available? Hoping they're coming before the first reported batch in May.

[owenm]

I thought I read previously that China's Sinovac wouldn't be used until Stage 3 trials were completed, and then apon FDA approval in Thailand.. 

 

It is now sounding like a done and confirmed deal.. I wonder who the Guinea pigs are going to be? 

[jesimps]

10 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Unlikely. These are coming direct from AZ in Europe or India, Thailand is not going to ab able to fulfil this kind of supply

I watched a documentary which said that the Oxford crowd started planning the AZ vacinne back in January 2020, before it even left China, so Thailand has a long way to go unless they can get some clues from the AZ and others.

[Deez]

12 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

Vaccines from 7/11 anyone?

Would actually be the fastest way to vaccinate everyone.  

[realfunster]

7 hours ago, shdmn said:

I believe 200 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are being produced in Thailand.  However, I also read that only 20 million of those are reserved for domestic use for some reason.  So sounds like it's mostly being done for export and profit.

 

I guess we will see if people are tempted to grease their palms.

As I understand, a condition of the AZ agreement is that once local production is set-up, Thailand will be responsible for production and delivery to Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam, amongst others.

[Archie Baker]

13 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

Steady on they have to go to the moon first.  

[4MyEgo]

26 minutes ago, owenm said:

I wonder who the Guinea pigs are going to be? 

Copied and pasted from the main article on page 1: 

 

The first delivery of the Sinovac vaccine will be administered among field workers in highly controlled areas like Samut Sakhon and Rayong, and vulnerable groups, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said, indicating the main areas where there have been clusters in the recent outbreak.

 

Guess that answers it ?

Edited January 6, 2021 by 4MyEgo