Delivery of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine pushed back to November

A day after the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation said the first doses of the Moderna vaccine would arrive this month – earlier than planned – it turns out they won’t. According to a Bangkok Post report, Zuellig Pharma, authorised distributor of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine says delivery of the first batch has had to be postponed to November, as originally planned.

The GPO has government approval to procure alternative vaccines for distribution to private hospitals, with the agency signing the Moderna contract in July of this year. The distributor says it had been preparing for an early October delivery but changes were made to the delivery schedule that were beyond its control. A spokesperson says the full consignment, consisting of 1.9 million doses, will be delivered in weekly shipments, with between 100,000 and 300,000 arriving each week. A further 6.8 million doses of Moderna will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022, but exact dates cannot be confirmed until the doses have passed quality checks.

“We will be informed of the delivery dates by the manufacturer 2 weeks before the delivery is made.”

According to the Bangkok Post report, the distributor says it’s working closely with Moderna to get doses delivered as quickly as possible, adding that a possible solution could be getting a new source. Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration has approved the Moderna vaccine produced by ROVI Pharma Industrial Services in Spain, making it the fourth Covid-19 vaccine given FDA approval, after AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

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SOURCE: Bangkok Post