AstraZeneca to complete initial order of 6m doses this week

So far, 4.7 million doses of the 6-million batch have been delivered and the remainder will be provided this week as part of an overall commitment to deliver 61 million doses of the vaccine to Thailand.

James Teague, country president at AstraZeneca Thailand, said: “It is hugely encouraging to see the pace of vaccinations picking up across the country, a real sign that if we work together, we can get closer to ending the pandemic. We continue to work collaboratively with the Thai government, to achieve effective vaccination coverage across the country and region as quickly as possible.”

Apart from local deliveries, AstraZeneca will also start exporting the vaccine in early July. One-third of the approximately 180 million doses produced by Siam Bioscience has been reserved for Thailand. The remainder will be distributed among contracting countries in the wider Southeast Asian region.

In October 2020, AstraZeneca, the Public Health Ministry, Siam Cement Group and Siam Bioscience signed a letter of intent to mark their shared commitment to ensure broad and equitable access to the vaccine in Thailand and across the region.

Leon Wang, executive vice president of AstraZeneca International, said: “A regional and global response to the pandemic is a must to truly alter its course decisively. Thailand plays an important manufacturing role in contributing to the pandemic’s end across the region.”

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has had a major global impact, helping to save tens of thousands of lives since the start of this year and prevent hospitalisations. The vaccine is well-tolerated and highly effective against all disease severities in clinical trials, and emerging real-world evidence from tens of millions of people shows that the vaccine reduces severe disease and hospital admissions by more than 80 per cent after the first dose.

AstraZeneca is supplying its Covid-19 vaccine globally at no profit during the pandemic. Over 600 million doses of the vaccine have been released for supply to 168 countries, so far.