GPO chief clarifies on questions over Sinovac vaccine expiry date
The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) has eased fears created by some social media posts over the expiry date of Sinovac vaccines.
The posts said that some boxes of Sinovac vaccines given to medical professionals and volunteers had the expiry date crossed out, and they could have expired.
“This is a misunderstanding,” GPO director-general Dr Witoon Danwiboon said on Friday.
“The vaccine normally would expire three years from the manufacturing date. However, the Thailand Food and Drug Administration [FDA] has set the expiry date for Covid-19 vaccine to be used in Thailand at only six months.
“We have already contacted the manufacturer to change the expiration date accordingly, but they said they could do that from the second lot onwards. The first lot of 200,000 doses that had already been shipped to Thailand would have the original expiration date,” he added.
“The GPO did not cross out the expiration date on the boxes, but we believe that it could have been done by officials who wished to correct the expiration date to meet the FDA’s regulation.”
Witoon added that the second lot of 800,000 doses would arrive in boxes carrying a six-month expiration date together with a QR code that could be scanned to read the detailed drug description.
“The changing of boxes and labels has no effect on the vaccine’s quality whatsoever,” he assured.