Thailand has agreed to manufacture and supply AstraZeneca's experimental Covid-19 vaccine domestically and for other nations in the region, the British and Thai governments said.
The announcement by the British embassy in Bangkok did not specify how many doses of the vaccine candidate, AZD1222, would be distributed in Thailand.
It also did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
AstraZeneca is providing the potential vaccine, developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, at no profit during the pandemic and would work with Siam Bioscience to set up manufacturing facilities, Thailand's Ministry of Public Health said in a separate statement.
Chairman of Siam Bioscience, Satitpong Sukvimol said the company was aiming to have the first batch of vaccines available in the middle of next year.
This would make Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to successfully manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine.
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he was glad that AstraZeneca chose Thailand, by Siam Bioscience, as one of its production sites of the Covid-19 vaccine and announced the government's support for the distribution of the vaccines to neighbouring countries.
Regarding the progress of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by BioNet-Asia, the company's president Vitoon Vonghangool said the company is negotiating with Australia's Food and Drug Administration to conduct the first-phase trial of a Covid-19 DNA vaccine in Australia.