Trial data doesn’t “impact” Thailand’s plans to use Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine

The recent China’s Sinovac BioTech trial data reporting 50.4% efficiency does not “impact” Thailand’s plans to receive and administer vaccines for Covid-19 next month, according to director general of the Medical and Science Department Supakit Sirilak.

Questions have risen around the vaccine’s efficacy rate, which was originally reported as 78% in trails in Brazil, but recently downgraded to just over 50%. The news comes just as Indonesia is rolling out a mass vaccination campaign with President Joko Widodo injected with the China-made vaccine today.

In Thailand, the news of the low efficiency doesn’t impact the country’s plan to administer the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, according to Supakit.

“There is no impact on our plan right now… We are asking for information directly from Sinovac, so we are waiting for their response to get all the facts.”

Thailand ordered 2 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac in the midst of a new wave of coronavirus infections. The first batch of 200,000 doses will arrive next month.

Another 61 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have already been secured and the Thai company Siam Bioscience will produce the vaccine for both domestic use and to export across Southeast Asia.

All vaccines will be assessed based on quality, safety and efficiency, according to Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration.

SOURCE: Reuters