Online forum releases latest on Covid-19 vaccines produced in Thailand
The National Vaccine Institute held the “Thailand Covid-19 Vaccine Forum 2021” on Wednesday to release updates on Covid-19 vaccines being developed locally. Organisations that have been developing vaccines since 2020 provided the following updates:
Chulalongkorn University
Prof Dr Kiat Ruxrungtham said the mRNA vaccine ChulaCov 19 was undergoing its second clinical test on volunteers aged between 18 and 59.
Kiat believes Thailand will have its own mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 by April next year. This jab can protect recipients from Delta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants of the virus. He added that Chulalongkorn University’s research team was also developing a second version of the vaccine to deal with new variants in the future.
Baiya Phytopharm
Dr Suthira Taychakhoonavudh, CEO and founder, said the Baiya Phytopharm vaccine has been tested on four humans and none of them have shown any side effects. The vaccine will be tested on a second group of volunteers on Thursday.
Baiya Phytopharm has also developed a second version of the vaccine and it is currently being tested on animals.
National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotech)
Biotech director Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana said his organisation was developing a vaccine in the form of a nasal spray. This spray has produced successful results on animals and will be tested on humans at the beginning of 2022.
Biotech is also planning to test this vaccine against the Delta variant of the virus, the director added.
Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO)
Porntip Wiratwong, chief of GPO’s vaccine development project, said tests show her organisation’s HXP-GPOVac was safe for humans. The vaccine is undergoing a second phase of testing and results of this phase will be announced before the end of the year.
GPO plans to propose the conditional use of its vaccine next year.