Locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine will be available for masses from June 7: Anutin
The AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured domestically by Siam Bioscience will be available for mass inoculations from June 7 as per the original schedule, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed on Tuesday, debunking rumours that the ministry could not procure enough doses for the public on time.
“The manufacturer has confirmed that the delivery of the vaccine will start in June. The Department of Medical Sciences should take around 3-4 days to inspect it before releasing it to vaccination units,” he said.
Auntin said that so far four kinds of vaccines – AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna – have been approved and registered for use in Thailand by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The importer of Sinopharm’s Covilo vaccine has submitted complete documentation to register the vaccine in Thailand and the FDA should have it approved by Friday if nothing goes wrong,” he said.
“Meanwhile, Pfizer has submitted a ‘term sheet’ vaccine purchasing contract to the ministry. We will have 14 days to sign the contract. After that, Pfizer will have 30 days to submit documents for registration of the vaccine. We aim to purchase around 20 million doses of vaccine from them,” Anutin said.
“Once a vaccine is registered for use in Thailand, any private company or individual can contact the importer to buy the vaccine directly. There is no monopoly on vaccine purchases by the government as many have claimed,” he added.
