Thailand to produce new influenza vaccine for WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided US$2 million to Thailand as seed money to produce vaccines to battle a possible outbreak of a new strain of influenza, Thai Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said on Saturday.

Thailand will need to build a pharmaceuticals factory budgeted at about US$45 million to be able to provide the vaccine, according to Dr. Mongkol.

Under the terms of an agreement signed in Switzerland by WHO and the Thai Ministry of Public Health´s Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), witnessed by Dr. Mongkol and Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, the Ministry will establish a pilot plant at the GPO with a US$1.996 million budget to produce about 10,000 doses for human use.

Dr. Mongkol said the GPO has a capacity to produce about 100,000 doses of the vaccine annually and it must supply 10 per cent of its total production to WHO, to be warehoused at agreed prices.

Thailand has become the sixth country to receive such a financial incentive from WHO,

which earlier made such agreements with Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.

It will take a year to set up the Thai plant to manufacture two million doses of influenza medication commercially, Dr. Mongkol said, adding that the Ministry´s Disease Control Department will seek a budget of Bt1.54 billion (about US$45 million) from Cabinet on Tuesday.