Oxford University, which has partnered with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca to produce a Covid-19 vaccine, has announced that it will use Thailand as its production base for the ASEAN region. Siam Bioscience, a Thai biopharmaceutical company, will manufacture the vaccine in Thailand.
The vaccine will be available to the Thai population by the first half of 2021. To purchase supplies for producing the vaccine, the Thailand government has set aside about USD 20 million, which is part of the USD 1.3 billion that it has allocated in its 2021 fiscal budget for Covid-19 related measures. The vaccine is also being seen as a way to boost Thailand’s tourist-dependent economy, which has been hit by the pandemic’s travel restrictions.
(Sources: The Thaiger; Inquirer)
