Amid a sluggish state COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Thailand’s Thammasat University is ready to procure additional COVID-19 vaccines from abroad, to give members of the public and private and public organizations more options.
Director of Thammasat University Hospital Dr. Paruhat Tor-udom said on Tuesday that the university’s council has decided to invoke regulations, pertaining to the provision of medical and health services by the university to procure vaccines and related medication, adding that the decision will be published in the Royal Gazette.
This will make Thammasat University the sixth agency legally permitted to procure COVID-19 vaccines, in addition to the Disease Control Department, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, the Thai Red Cross Society, the Chulabhorn Royal Academy and the National Vaccine Institute.
Dr. Paruhat said that the university plans to import second generation mRNA and protein subunit vaccines from Novavax and Johnson & Johnson. They are expected to arrive next year.
He made clear that Thammasat University does not seek to make profit from the exercise and is ready to cooperate with other organizations or associations in need of large amounts of vaccine, adding that they will use the same approach as the Chulabhorn Royal Academy, when it purchased the Chinese Sinopharm inactivated virus vaccine.
