Thailand-made Covid-19 vaccine expected to be ready in mid-2023
The first Thai Covid-19 vaccines will be ready and registered in the middle of 2023 if the third phase of research is successful.
Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Friday chaired the opening ceremony for the third phase of the HXP-GPOVac vaccine research by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO).
He said once the research is complete, Thailand will be able to produce vaccines to use as booster doses.
It would reduce procurement costs and strengthen the public health system after the country spent around 80 billion baht on buying Covid-19 vaccines.
GPO managing director Withoon Danwiboon said, “If the research progress is in line with the schedule, [the vaccine] will be registered in the middle of 2023. We could produce the first batch of 5-10 million doses per year, which would be sufficient for domestic booster doses, but the number could be increased.”
Dr Kriangkrai Prasert, the head of the third phase of the study, said that the GPO would test the vaccine on 4,000 volunteers to check the safety and efficiency of immunity with blood tests after 14 days, three months, six months, and one year.
Tests will be conducted on those who receive two doses of the same vaccine and will be administered as a 10-microgramme booster dose with intramuscular injection.
Volunteers will get the vaccines from December 23 to 29, 2022, or January 5 to 11, 2023 at either Nakhon Phanom City Hall or the Na Kae district office.
The volunteers must be over 18 years old, be healthy without any symptoms from any underlying disease, should not have been infected with Covid-19 within three months, and been negative in an antigen test on vaccination day.
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