Sinopharm’s Thai distributor, Vnova International Co, earlier complained that the FDA’s “unfair” rejection meant Thailand had lost the opportunity to use the vaccine.

FDA secretary-general Dr Paisan Dankhum said the Sinopharm application has not been rejected and a special channel has been opened to facilitate registration as quickly as possible. If all documents are supplied, the application process will take about 30 days, he said.

Vnova International first contacted the FDA on January 11 to ask for information about Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine registration, the FDA chief said. The FDA provided the information on the application process and documents needed. On February 8, Vnova sought further advice on filing documents for vaccine registration. So far, it has not filed any registration documents but said it would do so this month or next month, according to Paisan.

The FDA insisted it was not blocking any Covid-19 vaccine registration and was ready to give advice or answer questions to speed up the process.

Thai FDA denies claim it blocked Chinese vaccine

The Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday denied a claim it had barred registration of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.