Thai firm set to test Covid-19 vaccine candidate on humans
A Thai-French firm says its development of a vaccine for Covid-19 is at an advanced stage, with human trials set to begin in the next few weeks.
Bio-tech corporation BioNet-Asia is currently testing whether the candidate vaccine is effective in mice. If so, the firm will begin conducting two vaccine trials on humans, said company founder Vitoon Wonghanku.
The Public Health Ministry is supervising the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, while the results of the project are being passed on to the World Health Organisation (WHO), he added.
The candidate vaccine was injected into mice on April 9. It will take scientists around five weeks to measure whether it has been effective, with results of the animal trial expected in May.
So far, between Bt100 million and Bt200 million has been invested in the project. A further 500 million to 1 billion will be spent on the next phases, including human trials and product registration.