Thailand extends AstraZeneca vaccine shelf life from 6 to 9 months
The Food and Drug Administration of Thailand has approved an extension to the shelf-life for Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca to nine months with immediate effect.
“The newly extended shelf life of our vaccine is welcome news that will greatly benefit the national vaccination programme, ensuring that doses can be safely stored for longer before they are administered,” said James Teague, president of AstraZeneca (Thailand) on Friday.
“As the third dose booster programme is further implemented, AstraZeneca will continue to support the government in providing vaccine doses to help protect against Covid-19.”
The Thai FDA’s approval to extend the vaccine’s shelf life from six months to nine months was based on an extensive review of data, according to the company.
Teague said that AstraZeneca and its global partners had supplied over 2.8 billion doses of the vaccine to more than 180 countries, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low- and lower-middle-income countries.
“The vaccine is estimated to have helped prevent 50 million Covid-19 cases, five million hospitalisations, and to have helped save more than one million lives.”
Reuters reported last month that Indonesia also extended AstraZeneca’s shelf life as nearly six million donated shots were approaching their expiry dates. The move came after poorer nations rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine distributed by COVAX in December, mainly because of a rapidly approaching expiry date, a Unicef official told Reuters.