Maximize COVID-19 Vaccine Dose, Thailand Develops AutoVacc Robot

JAKARTA - The uneven supply of vaccines, amid the new wave of the Delta variant of COVID-19, has forced many countries to try to maximize their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, so that more people can receive the vaccine.

For example, Thailand, which is struggling with its worst corona virus outbreak. Researchers in the country have developed machines to dispense doses of the COVID-19 vaccine more efficiently and optimize lower-than-expected supplies.

Using a robotic arm, the 'AutoVacc' system can take 12 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine (AZN.L) in four minutes from the bottle, according to researchers at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand who built the machine that has been used at the university's vaccination center since Monday this week.

That's up 20 percent from the standard 10 doses taken manually, they said. The machine only works on AstraZeneca's multi-dose bottles at this time, with labels indicating each bottle can provide 10 to 11 doses.

"The machine guarantees with accuracy that we can get an additional 20 percent of each vial of vaccine, to 10-12 doses of vaccine," said Juthamas Ratanavaraporn, the team's lead researcher at the university's Center for Biomedical Engineering Research.

"We get the meaning, if we have AstraZeneca for 1 million people, this machine can increase the number of doses to 1.2 million people," continued Juthamas.

While some healthcare workers using low dead space syringes (LDSS) aiming to reduce wastage can take up to 12 doses per vial, it requires a high level of manpower and skill, he said.

"It can drain a lot of health workers. They have to do it every day for months," said Juthamas.

Thailand has largely contained COVID-19 for much of the pandemic, but more virulent variants such as Delta have seen a spike in infections and deaths since April, increasing pressure on authorities to speed up vaccinations.

So far, about 9 percent of Thailand's population of more than 66 million have been fully vaccinated, with launch hampered by lower-than-anticipated supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Separately, the research team says they should be able to produce 20 more AutoVaccs in three or four months. However, government funding and support will be needed to expand across the country.

"This robotic prototype machine costs 2.5 million baht 76,243,000 US dollars, including other materials such as syringes, Juthamas said, adding while they are open to export opportunities for the future.

After the AsztraZeneca vaccine, they also plan to build a similar machine for use with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, he added.

Juthamas said the machine aims to relieve the burden of health workers. Thailand has reported about 1.1 million COVID-19 infections and a total of 10,085 deaths, pushing parts of the health system to the brink.

"If the health workers are too tired, the possibility of human error is also there, so it's better if the machine does this," he concluded.