Reports this week that Thailand’s private hospitals have ordered millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines are unlikely to factor in the short term because of government regulations, multiple sources told Thai Enquirer on Tuesday.
According to the sources, Thailand is weeks away from approving private purchase of the Chinese Sinovacs vaccine and months away from approving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for distribution among the public.
The slow response to vaccine approval has been a growing source of frustration and concern for the medical community with companies unable to import or distribute vaccines.
Private hospitals that are looking to procure vaccines include the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services group, the Bangkok Chain Hospital (BCH) group, the Thonburi Healthcare Group (THG), Bumrungrad International Hospital and Vibhavadi Hospital.
According to Dr Boon Vanasin, the Chairman of the Thonburi Healthcare Group, the hospital has already ordered 1 million Sinovacs vaccine with the option to purchase millions more.
The company is currently preparing the documentation to submit to regulatory bodies but will have to wait for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval before they could import any vaccines.
Likewise, Vibhavadi Hospital was ordered to pull down advertisements about the vaccines it was procuring by the Ministry of Public Health and await FDA approval.
The hospital said this week that it had ordered 50,000-60,000 doses of the Moderna’s vaccine and it will be open to preordering again after the relevant regulatory bodies approves Moderna vaccines. Chaisit Kupwiwat, Vibhavadi Hospital’s director, said last week that they expect the FDA to approve the vaccine and in the coming months.
Growing Frustration
While the private hospitals have outwardly showed a willingness to comply with government regulations and the approval process, there is growing frustration inside the hospitals over the perceived sluggishness of the government.
A source at Bangkok Dusit Medical Services told Thai Enquirer that the company has been hamstrung by the prospect of waiting months for regulatory approval for certain vaccines.
“The truth is, people coming to private hospitals want the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and not the Chinese ones or the locally produced ones,” said the source who asked not to be named.
“But at the current pace of approvals, that means we will not see the vaccine until mid-year at the earliest. Which means we take a risk in pre-ordering the vaccine now.”
The logistics involving in shipping the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Thailand is also great with the serums needing to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius.
“So we have to worry about the logistics, the backlog, and the worry that even if we order it now, we might not get the vaccine approved by the local FDA.”
The concerns that some vaccines may not be approved were furthered this week after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha posted on his social media page on Sunday that he will not risk vaccinating Thai people with a vaccine that has not been properly tested.
“For Thai people, I decided not to take that risk,” he said.
Prayut was referring to countries that were already injecting its citizens with vaccines “that might not have been thoroughly tested for safety.” We will not be a country that experiments on its citizens, the prime minister said.
According to a senior doctor at Bumrungrad Hospital, this effectively pushes the country towards the Chinese-made Sinovacs vaccine or to wait for the Crown Property Bureau-owned Siam Bioscience to produce a locally made version of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
”The government’s statements and the slow pace of the FDA means that unless you’re willing to wait until Q3 or Q4 of this year, your only vaccine options will be SinoVacs or Siam Bioscience,” the source said.
“I think most private high-end hospitals would like to bring in the other vaccines but logistics and worry over regulation hassle means we will likely have to order closer to home first.”
Private-Public partnership
Chalerm Harnphanich, BCH’s Chairman and chief executive, said last week that the FDA is currently surveying the demand for the vaccines and that they are expected to have a discussion with the public sector to provide more clarity about the procurement process in one to two weeks’ time.
He said none of the hospitals can order or make any communication about the vaccines because they are waiting for the FDA’s approval even though there are sales representatives from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in Thailand already.
In response, the FDA said on Monday that they are not blocking the private sector from procuring Covid vaccines but they must gain approval first – a process they say must take time to ensure safety of the public.
Secretary General Paisarn Dunkum said that the FDA has yet to receive a request to import vaccines. He said that the only entity that had asked to import a vaccine is the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO).
“The FDA have not received the registration request from any private hospital and we have never been contacted by any foreign company,” he said.
Paisarn said that once a request came in, the FDA were willing to move with speed to approve vaccines for emergency use.
It is unclear why the FDA needs private requests to move ahead with vaccine approval and testing.