AstraZeneca scouring supply chain to find more doses for Asia

Drugmaker AstraZeneca said it was scouring its supply chain to find more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for Southeast Asia, which is facing its most serious outbreak yet of the virus, AFP reported.

The statement from the Anglo-Swedish company — which produces its vaccine in Thailand for use domestically and in neighboring countries — comes in the wake of a supply shortage which has sparked heavy criticism of Thai Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha’s administration.

Under the terms of AstraZeneca’s agreement with Thai authorities, 180 million doses are due for production, one-third destined for the Thai market and the rest to be exported.

By the end of July AstraZeneca will have delivered 11.3 million doses for Thailand, according to James Teague, AstraZeneca’s representative in the country.

Exports have still not begun.

“We are delivering in the fastest possible timeframe, however, given the gravity of the Delta variant, we are leaving no stone unturned to accelerate supply further still,” Teague said in an “open letter to the people of Thailand.”

“We are also scouring the 20+ supply chains in our worldwide manufacturing network to find additional vaccines for Southeast Asia, including Thailand.”

But “a global supply crunch” for Covid-19 vaccines and a shortage of the materials required to make them made it difficult to provide a specific timeframe, he added in the AFP report.

The AstraZeneca contract was awarded last year to Siam Bioscience, a firm owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn that has no track record of producing vaccines.

It set out to produce vaccines for nine countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, as well as Thailand.

Siam Bioscience has not commented on reports of insufficient production or late delivery.

But Thailand has been forced to change its vaccine strategy by importing millions of doses of Chinese vaccines.

Thailand is among a host of Southeast Asian countries that kept infection numbers low during 2020 but now face record numbers of cases amid slow vaccination campaigns, AFP reported.