Health organizations across Thailand are pushing hard to develop a vaccine for covid-19 with trials beginning on rats before moving on to humans by the second half of this year if successful.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that more than 70 candidate vaccines are being developed by companies registered with the organization in Thailand and throughout the world.
One company in Thailand, BioNet-Asia, is hoping their vaccine will prove effective as they begin testing it on rats in a laboratory. Vitoon Vonghangool, President of the company, said:
“This operation will be under the supervision of the Public Health Ministry, though the progress will also be reported to WHO.”
He said that more than 200 million baht has already been spent on materials and research for vaccine development with a further one billion baht expected to be spent on human trials and registration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
International cooperation is key to successful vaccine development and Dr. Nakorn Premsir, Director of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), has already signed a contract with a leading Chinese university.
The contract will allow cooperation with testing new vaccines and expectations are high with hopes that tests will be completed by the second half of this year.
The NVI is also reaching out to cooperate with numerous other countries for vaccine development including Japan, Korea, Germany, and the United States.
Funds have been allocated for vaccine research in Thailand by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT).
Source: The Star
