Thailand Eyeing Russian Coronavirus Vaccine, Health Official Says

BANGKOK (Sputnik) - Thailand will carefully watch Russia's coronavirus vaccine rollout before deciding whether to recommend it for local use, the head of the National Vaccine Institute said Friday.

"We’re keeping our eyes on it", Nakorn Premsri was quoted as saying by the Khao Sod newspaper.

The official added that Thai vaccine researchers were concerned that the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, had not cleared all trials before it was approved by the authorities and endorsed by President Vladimir Putin.

More information is needed for the institute to make a recommendation on whether the government should buy the drug, he said. Until now, all data has come from the media.

Thailand is reportedly researching some five vaccine candidates. The most advanced medicine, a messenger RNA vaccine, will be tested in humans in October.

On 11 August, Russia registered the world's first coronavirus vaccine, which it named Sputnik V. While many countries displayed caution about the fact that the vaccine has yet not finished the last of WHO-prescribed three phases of trials, the Russian Ministry of Health stated that Sputnik V had undergone all necessary checks and proven to be capable of building immunity against the virus.