Four out of more than 20 Covid-19 vaccine candidates being developed in Thailand are now being tested on humans, the final process required before they are submitted for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government said on Saturday.
The vaccines are Chula-Cov19, HXP-GPOVac, Baiya Sars-CoV-2 Vax and Covigen, said deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek.
Ms Rachada said other vaccine candidates found to have promising results in lab-controlled trials were the viral vector, protein subunit, mRNA and virus-like particle (VLP) types.
This swift vaccine development is a result of cooperation among multiple parties including the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University, she said.
As for the Covid-19 vaccine nasal spray that has become increasingly popular, she said Biotec is developing one called "Nastvac" which has already passed tests on animals.
"About 200 to 300 doses of this vaccine candidate are expected to be produced ahead of the next set of clinical trials in the second quarter of this year," she said.
"A Covid-19 antibody nasal spray is also being developed by five partners, namely Chulalongkorn University, Silpakorn University, Health Systems Research Institute, the GPO and HIBIOCY Co."
The cabinet late last year approved a budget of 2.3 billion baht to help develop the homegrown messenger RNA (mRNA)-based ChulaCov19 vaccine against Covid-19.
It has also approved 1.3 billion baht to fund the development of Baiya Sars-CoV-2 Vax, a plant-based vaccine being developed by Baiya Phytopharm, a startup company under the CU Enterprise programme.
