AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine faces more supply hurdles, now from Thailand

 

AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing partner in Southeast Asia has missed a delivery target in Thailand and shipments to other countries in the region have been delayed, the latest setback for a shot that was meant to be the backbone of the global inoculation effort.

Thailand was slated to receive and administer 6 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses in June but health authorities this week said they would be distributing only about 3.5 million of those shots this month. Pledging to still give out 6 million doses as planned, officials appear to be making up the shortfall with millions of shots from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Shipments of shots made by Siam Bioscience -- AstraZeneca’s Bangkok-based partner, which has links to the Thai royal family -- to Malaysia and the Philippines have also been delayed, though both countries say they don’t expect to be waiting for too long.

The situation comes on top of delivery problems at India’s Serum Institute of India Ltd., another AstraZeneca partner, which has left developing countries from Nepal to Rwanda short of shots that were promised through the World Health Organization-backed Covax program. Siam Bioscience is AstraZeneca’s sole Covid vaccine partner in Southeast Asia, a region that is trailing on inoculation and where the virus continues to flare, including in Thailand where infections have surged over the past two months. Read More