Once Pfizer is fully approved by Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration, its sales representative will be able to deal with the private sector directly, FDA’s secretary-general said on Tuesday.
“It will become like any other vaccines that we are using such as influenza vaccine,” said Dr Paisarn Dunkum.
“Pfizer’s sales representative is Pfizer (Thailand) and they will be able to sell it to the private sector like other vaccines,” he said. “Again, there must be an understanding that the company that can import and has been registered is Pfizer (Thailand).”
His comments came after the United States’ FDA has on Monday granted a full safety approval for the mRNA vaccine, making it the first Covid vaccine to gain such approval in the US.
Right now, only approved government agencies can import Covid vaccines.
Thailand received 1.5 million donated Pfizer doses from the US on July 30 and the vaccine has been approved for emergency use. The vaccine has been prioritized for front-line medical workers.
The Thai government has ordered 30 million Pfizer doses which are expected to arrive between September and December.
They are also planning to order another 50 million Pfizer doses for 2022.
Paisarn invited Pfizer (Thailand) to come and ask for full approval of the vaccine from Thailand’s FDA and said that the process could be done within 30 days.
“We would like to invite Pfizer (Thailand) to bring the additional data to request for the full approval with the FDA and I believe the company is already preparing to do this,” he said.