More vaccine help neededProgress in developing a Covid-19 vaccine has raised hopes the world will be able to better deal with the virus that has so far claimed 1.2 million lives with 49 million confirmed cases. According to a report by Duke Global Health Innovation Center revealing pre-orders of large countries from the three frontrunners of Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca, the EU placed a pre-order of 700 million doses; the US purchased 700 million doses with an option to order an additional 500 million doses; India purchased 500 million doses and Japan, 290 million doses. The UK purchased 145 million doses; Indonesia and Brazil both purchased 100 million doses each, and Canada purchased 96 million doses. For local vaccine development, there are three potential projects. They include a mRNA vaccine by Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine; a DNA-type vaccine by Thai-French Bionet-Asia Co, and plant-based vaccine by Baiya Phytopharm Co, a Thai startup at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Pharmacy.

Source: Bangkok Post December 06, 2020 20:37 UTC