Thailand joins global race to develop Covid-19 vaccine

The director of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), Dr Nakorn Premsri, said on Sunday (May 24) that vaccine development involves the synthesising of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) in a monkey, which began on Saturday.

The mRNA type Covid-19 vaccines, which are tested in monkeys, will be injected three times at intervals. The first injection took place on Saturday. The second will be in another four weeks and the third in eight weeks before it is tested on humans around August this year.

There are six types of vaccines being developed: viral vector type, inactivated type, VLP type, protein sub-unit type, DNA, and mRNA types.

Prof Dr Kiat Ruxrungtham. Professor of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, revealed the reason why Thailand has to develop and produce its own vaccine. He said countries such as the US and China that are currently developing the vaccine have a large population. It would take years before such countries can produce the vaccine for sale.

Apart from government medical agencies and Chulalongkorn University, Dr Kiat said the mRNA vaccine development team has coordinated with Dr Drew Weissman, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who shared the development of the mRNA vaccine, and BioNet, a Thai-French company, which is preparing for mass vaccine development.