AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in Thailand authorised for World Health Organization Emergency Use
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in Thailand has been authorised under the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) procedure, with immediate effect.
In February 2021, the WHO granted EUL to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, enabling global access during the pandemic. This EUL authorisation has been extended to now include doses manufactured by Siam Bioscience, AstraZeneca’s production partner in Thailand, and recognises that COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca or Vaxzevria is the same product wherever it is made.
James Teague, Country President, AstraZeneca (Thailand) Ltd., said: “We welcome the World Health Organization’s emergency listing because, even though many governments already consider people given our Thailand-made doses to be fully vaccinated and eligible for international travel, it will make it easier for more governments to recognise the vaccine and allow people to travel again.”
Nualphan Lamsam, Honorary Director of Corporate Communications, Siam Bioscience Co., Ltd., said: “Siam Bioscience is proud to have been selected by AstraZeneca as its local manufacturing partner. We take great pride in producing high-quality COVID-19 vaccine, now recognised by the World Health Organization. All batches of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine produced at Siam Bioscience, undergo stringent quality testing and are also authorised by regulators and international laboratories in Europe and the U.S. Siam Bioscience and AstraZeneca continue to work closely and produce vaccine doses for the wellbeing of the Thai people and region, to help a quick return to normalcy.”
All manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca around the world is conducted using the same stringent manufacturing process and each batch passes over 60 quality tests as part of a robust global quality assurance process.
From the 585 million individuals who had received at least one dose of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca as of September 2021, COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca prevented over 105,000 deaths and over 620,000 hospitalisations worldwide.
In clinical trials, COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca demonstrated 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalisation after two doses, and real-world evidence shows the vaccine is around 80 - 90% effective against severe disease due to WHO-identified variants of concern.
To date, more than 1.5 billion doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been released for supply to more than 170 countries globally, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low- and lower-middle income countries.
