Buddhist monks have their blood pressure checked before receiving a dose of the coronavirus vaccine at Wat Si Sudaram Worawihan in Bangkok on July 30, 2021. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
Amid a global shortage of vaccines and new wave of COVID-19 infections, some countries in Southeast Asia are rushing to develop their own coronavirus shots.
After promising results from the Phase 1 clinical trial of the experimental ChulaCov19 vaccine, researchers from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University began the Phase 2a trial on 150 volunteers on Aug 26.
The homegrown COVID-19 vaccine in Thailand is on track to become Southeast Asia’s first mRNA vaccine
The homegrown COVID-19 vaccine in Thailand is on track to become Southeast Asia’s first mRNA vaccine.
“(Our vaccine) can induce a very strong antibody response, (which is) as good as Pfizer,” said Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the ChulaCov19 mRNA vaccine development program and founder of the Chula Vaccine Research Center, the research team behind ChulaCOV-19.
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Unlike the inactivated vaccines that contain a protein or other small pieces taken from a virus, mRNA vaccines prompt the human body to make a protein that triggers an immune response.
According to the results released on Aug 16, based on the Phase 1 trial on 36 volunteers, ChulaCov19 is 94 percent effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It is capable of building immunity against all four virus variants including Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
“The vaccine is also able to induce a strong T-cell response,” Kiat told China Daily. T-cell response plays a vital role in getting rid of infected cells and reducing number of virus in the tissues.
After the Phase 2a trial, Kiat said there will be another, Phase 2b, trial on 5,000 volunteers in October and then possibly a Phase 3 trial on 15,000 to 30,000 volunteers.
He said he hopes the Thai FDA can consider easing the regulations on Thai-made vaccines and approve the team’s vaccine for emergency use without Phase 3 trial results as long as the vaccine’s safety and efficacy can be proved.
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“There are a lot of people … asking a question whether we are too late to develop our own vaccine,” said Kiat, who hopes the team’s vaccine can be approved for emergency use before the Thai new year in April.
“I would say not at all. We have to make sure that our capability, capacity and value chain are complete. So we will be ready for any new variants and also for the next pandemics.”
Thailand is currently experiencing its worst COVID-19 outbreak, fueled by the Delta variant of the virus.
The country plans to vaccinate 50 million people by early October but rollout has been delayed due to multiple reasons including supply shortage.
Noting that there are two among five vaccines using different technologies entering the clinical trials in Thailand, Kiat said it is important for any country, including a small country like Thailand, to have its own capacity to make vaccines in preparation of other pandemics in the future.
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For example, the NDV-HXP-S COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization entered Phase 2 clinical study on 250 volunteers at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, on Aug 16. The vaccine uses egg-based technology, similar to that used to produce influenza vaccines.
If the vaccine candidate is approved by the Thai FDA, the potential production capacity can reach 20-30 million doses a year to provide jabs for 10-15 million Thai people, according to GPO Managing Director Withoon Danwiboon.
Thailand is not the only country in Southeast Asia that is ramping up efforts to develop its own COVID-19 vaccines.
Indonesia is battling one of Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with 4.04 million cases detected as of Aug 27, according to the World Health Organization. The virus has killed over 127,000 people in the archipelago and has strained the country’s public health system
In Indonesia, the country’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has allowed Airlangga University, or Unair, and PT Biotis to further develop the home-grown COVID-19 vaccine Merah Putih.
Translated as "red and white" in the Indonesian language, Merah Putih was named after the colors of the nation's flag.
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BPOM chairperson Penny Lukito said on Aug 18 that Unair and Biotis’ joint research is the most promising among the six domestic institutions and universities that are participating in the Merah Putih vaccine development.
Unair and Biotis are developing an inactivated vaccine – where researchers culture virus particles in the laboratory and later kill them to destroy their disease producing capacity. They have already concluded animal trials and may soon start human clinical trials.
Lukito said BPOM might issue emergency use authorization by the first half of 2022.
Health experts welcomed this development as it can help shore up Indonesia’s vaccine supply over the long term. But this will not solve the nation’s immediate problem — how to accelerate the pace of vaccination as the highly-transmissible Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant continues to infect and kill more people.
Indonesia is battling one of Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with 4.04 million cases detected as of Aug 27, according to the World Health Organization. The virus has killed over 127,000 people in the archipelago and has strained the country’s public health system.
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“The journey (of developing homegrown vaccine) is still quite long. Merah Putih can’t help the vaccination program in a very near future as we immediately need the supply now,” said Irma Hidayana, co-founder of Lapor COVID-19, a Jakarta-based independent data monitoring group.
Indonesia's vaccination program was launched in January with the aim of inoculating 181.5 million people this year. That target has been raised to 208 million to include the 12- to 17-year-old group. But as of Aug 22, only 31.6 million Indonesians have been fully vaccinated.
A’an Suryana, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a leading sociopolitical and economic research center in the region, said the Merah Putih vaccine development program aims to make Indonesia more self-reliant in terms of vaccine supply. But he said it will still take time for Merah Putih to be rolled out since it is still at the animal trial stage.
“The key is supply. Previously, the government had problems in inoculating people due to inconsistent arrivals of vaccines. This inconsistent arrival of the vaccine was reflected in the inconsistent way the government set vaccination targets,” he said.
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“Between August 1 and 6, the government was supposed to have injected 12 million doses of vaccines (in line with 2 million dose target per day). But, in those six days, only 4.5 million doses were injected,” he noted.
kelly@chinadailyapac.com