The head of Thai team in developing COVID-10 vaccine said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Thailand will delay human trials of the vaccine as a result of limited production capacity at overseas facilities in San Diego and Vancouver.
Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Chulalongkorn University's vaccine development program, said that health authorities had planned human testing of the vaccine by October, but must delay that by several months as factories abroad are at full capacity.
"It is quite unfortunate but the whole world is racing towards producing COVID-19 vaccine, and working towards human trial to secure regulatory approval," said Kiat, "however, we are hoping that before year end, we will be able to start the human trial program."
The Thai Cabinet meeting on Tuesday had rubber stamped 1 billion baht (31.7 million U.S. dollars) in funding for the National Vaccine Institute to support development and production of vaccines against COVID-19 and other diseases.
From the 1 billion baht for vaccines, 60 percent of which would be invested in Oxford University's vaccine program and the remainder in its domestic program.
Thailand has reported 3,403 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 58 deaths.
There has been no confirmed local transmission for more than three months.