BANGKOK, July 24 — AstraZeneca Plc is scouring across its “20+ supply chains in its worldwide manufacturing network” to find additional vaccines for Southeast Asia, including Thailand.
Its managing director James Teague said a global supply crunch for Covid-19 vaccines and shortages of the materials and components required to produce the vaccine has made it difficult to keep up with the demand.
“We are hopeful of importing additional doses in the months ahead,” he said in an open letter to the people of Thailand published on its website today.
AstraZeneca said its Thai partner Siam Bioscience Co Ltd, the first and only biopharmaceuticals manufacturer in Thailand, would produce 180 million doses of vaccine where 61 million doses have been reserved for use in Thailand and the remaining doses will be distributed across contracting countries in Southeast Asia.
Earlier this week, Thailand said it was considering imposing a limit on exports of locally produced AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. The move could hit the countries in the region battling Covid-19 as well.
Meanwhile, Teague said the pharmaceutical company has also been monitoring the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Thailand.
“We are in constant contact with the Department for Disease Control on the virus’ evolving impact and on how we can help the national vaccination programme. I want to assure you that for us, there is no higher priority than manufacturing vaccines that can protect you and your loved ones, as fast as possible,” he said.
Teague explained that the vaccines made in Thailand were of critical importance to the neighbouring countries.
“Our brothers and sisters across Asean experience new lockdowns and rising fatalities also. New data from Canada shows that one dose of our vaccine is 87 per cent effective against hospitalisation or death caused by the Delta variant.
“We share the same goal. To end the pandemic, we need to manage virus levels everywhere. As the virus ignores borders, the acceleration of Covid-19 in neighbouring countries is a threat to us in Thailand. This fight can only be won if we act together,” he said.
Meanwhile, Teague said AstraZeneca is to deliver an additional 2.3 million vaccines to the Ministry of Public Health next week.
In July, he said AstraZeneca has delivered 9 of 11.3 million doses of vaccine this month as part of its overall commitment to delivering 61 million to Thailand.
Since its vaccination drive on February 28, a total of 15.7 million people have received at least one dose of Covid-19.
— Bernama
