Vaccines: AstraZeneca starts deliveries of Thailand-made doses

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — AstraZeneca’s partner in Thailand on Wednesday began its first deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines after concerns they were behind on their production schedules for the country and parts of Southeast Asia.

Siam Bioscience said the first locally produced AstraZeneca doses were delivered to Thailand’s Ministry of Health ahead of the June 7 start of the country’s official mass vaccination program. It did not say how many were delivered.

AstraZeneca signed with Siam Bioscience last year to be its vaccine production and distribution center in Southeast Asia. It said that the vaccines would be ready for export to other Southeast Asian countries in July.

As part of the plan, AstraZeneca has to deliver 6 million doses to Thailand in June, and 10 million doses monthly from July to November, with a final 5 million doses in December.

China’s Sinovac has also been supplying Thailand with vaccines, with nearly 6 million in the pipeline. A total of five vaccines have been approved by the Thai government, but so far only two are available for use.