The race against time to safely develop and quickly deliver a life-saving COVID-19 vaccine around the world serves as AstraZeneca's testament to protecting the lives of billions of people while addressing one of the biggest healthcare crises facing humankind.
Iskra Reic, Executive Vice President of Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca, shared with the Bangkok Post that to date, her pharmaceutical company supplied over 2.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to more than 180 countries. Of these, over 180 million shots were manufactured in Thailand through its partnership with Siam Bioscience and support from Thailand's Ministry of Public Health.
"At AstraZeneca, we have a strong commitment to do our utmost to fight the crisis and make the vaccine for the world," Ms Reic said during her visit to Bangkok. "We are extremely proud today to look back and be able to say that our vaccine helped to save more than 1 million lives globally and more than 5,000 lives here in Thailand."
STRATEGIC MANUFACTURING HUB AND PARTNER
The 12-year-tenure executive said AstraZeneca understood the urgency in setting up a global supply network that could deliver the vaccine, which it developed together with Oxford University, at an unprecedented speed. The company then established collaborations with 25 proven manufacturing partners across 15 countries worldwide.
"A few of the partnerships are in Asia because, needless to say, we have to make sure that we are able to deliver the vaccine in this part of the world." She explained the company's ambitious goal and referred to the strategic decision to select Thailand as the sole Southeast Asia manufacturing hub for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The highly-anticipated launch of AstraZeneca's supply chain in Thailand in June last year came at a critical time because the kingdom and other neighbouring countries were pushing through the acute phase of the pandemic.
"One of the partners that stood out in this part of the world is definitely Siam Bioscience. We were very pleased to enter into the manufacturing agreement. Siam Bioscience, together with the Thai government, were absolutely critical for us to deliver and supply vaccine at speed in Thailand and other countries in the region."
AstraZeneca has successfully supplied 61 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Thailand in 2021, supporting the Ministry of Public Health's mass vaccination programme and made a strong start in AstraZeneca's commitment to providing a total of 60 million doses to the country in 2022.
EVUSHELD: COVID CURE FOR IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
While over half of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, there are still many people who are immunocompromised and cannot receive the same kind of protection due to various medical reasons.
"For those people to be protected against COVID-19 and its potentially serious consequences, there is an option called Evusheld. It is a combination of two long-acting monoclonal antibodies that AstraZeneca developed. The two antibodies act synergistically and actually mimic the normal antibodies in our body. This allows those patients with high risk who cannot develop antibodies to be protected," Ms Reic said.
"In Thailand and many countries, governments are looking to move from pandemic to post-pandemic or endemic stage. One thing that is important is how we make sure that we leave nobody behind."
AstraZeneca is currently discussing with Thai authorities about making Evusheld available in the kingdom. The company also said that Evusheld is one of only two authorised antibody therapies that show activity against Omicron and all other variants of concern in studies from University College Oxford and Washington University School of Medicine.
EFFICACY BACKED BY REAL-WORLD DATA
Despite the urgency of developing breakthrough solutions to end the pandemic, Ms Reic said that the real-world data from vaccination programmes across the world have increasingly demonstrated that AstraZeneca's vaccine and the available mRNA vaccines are comparably effective in preventing hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19.
"We never compromise, in any way, in making sure that we deliver the high-quality product that has proven efficacy and safety both in the clinical data and real-world evidence data. By now, given the billions of people worldwide that received the AstraZeneca vaccine, we have plenty of data that consistently prove the vaccine's efficacy that maintains within the different variants of concern, especially Omicron."
Furthermore, she revealed the success behind AstraZeneca's scientific leadership and discovery is deeply rooted in the shared determination among scientists and researchers at the company's research and development (R&D) department. These employees' tireless efforts and their ever-growing curiosity to be on a search for new knowledge have contributed significantly to AstraZeneca's next breakthrough and strong scientific leadership.
"The productivity in R&D at AstraZeneca is significantly higher than others in the industry year-on-year. All of the tens of thousands of scientists and researchers worldwide are incredibly passionate about what they do," Ms Reic said.
"At the end of the day people, as always, are the key and critical driver for success. Those people in R&D and all of our employees at AstraZeneca who are helping to bring the medicines to the patients."
The broad portfolio of AstraZeneca's R&D extends beyond the vaccines. The company are also active in oncology R&D, biopharmaceuticals R&D, which is focused on cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, respiratory and immunology, and neuroscience and microbial science.
2022 VISION
For this year, Ms Reic said that the ultimate goal of AstraZeneca in transforming the lives of people for the better remains unchanged. She stressed the importance of public-private partnership in realising such a vision.
"The most important priority for us in Thailand this year is to continue to work in partnership with the government and other healthcare stakeholders to ensure that we do our best to continue helping everyone," she said.
In January, the Top Employers Institute recognised AstraZeneca Thailand as a 2022 Top Employer in Thailand and Asia-Pacific. The prestigious award reaffirms the company's dedication to its staff-oriented policies while fostering an innovative environment for all to continue thriving.
