April 18, 2009
Bangkok (ASTV Manager Online) – Thailand is going ahead with the idea of building its own vaccine plant in Saraburi so as to reduce dependency on imported vaccines.
The imported vaccine to prevent flu and avian flu costs 600 baht per dose. However, the price will be only 170 baht per dose for domestic vaccine.
The construction of the vaccine plant is likely to take place in July, according to the public health ministry.
It will cost more than 1,400 million baht to build this kind of plant, and the construction project is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Only six countries worldwide have got budgets for their vaccine research and production for domestic use. They are Thailand, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil as well as Mexico.
Thailand is the first nation with successful research, planning to add value to its research by extending to cover the commercial use.
This will be a significant step to create health security in Thailand.
The H5N1 virus can now be transmitted from animals to humans. Although it is not transmitted from human to human yet, the death toll was on the rise.
Up to 17 out of 25 infected patients died in 2004.
