BANGKOK: On Friday, Thailand’s Thonburi Healthcare Group Pcl (THG) backed up its vocal chairman’s allegation that the company was buying Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, helping its stock jump despite rejections from both drugmakers. Dr. Boon Vanasin’s claim that his company, a more than US$800 million private medicine conglomerate, was close to signing a deal for 20 million Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines to be imported into Thailand was quickly denied by both companies on Thursday, one day after a government agency filed a defamation suit against Boon, 82.
THG stuck to its guns on Friday.
The company stated in a statement that it had agreed to buy the vaccine and was in the process of completing documentation with overseas distributors.
Boon even said an agreement will be signed by Friday afternoon, according to local media. There was still no sign of a deal by the end of the day. THG shares ended the day 1.59 percent higher, having risen as much as 4% at one time.
It’s still unclear if Boon was being dishonest, was the victim of a con, or was, as he claims, working on a wonderful solution to Thailand’s dire vaccine shortage.
Boon claims that a transaction was being negotiated through a government entity that he did not name.
He told Reuters, “We are not doing it directly.”
Nonetheless, his remarks on Thursday boosted THG’s market capitalization by 1.5 billion baht (US$45.80 million), bringing it to 26.8 billion baht (US$818.32 million), according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
Thailand has only immunized 5% of its population of over 66 million people so far. It has been administering Sinovac vaccines from China and AstraZeneca vaccines from AstraZeneca, but the government is looking for alternative foreign dosages. For months, Boon, the Thai word for merit, has been on the lookout for COVID-19 vaccines, contending that the government should not have a monopoly on supply and that the vaccine program is “complacent and dangerous.” He attempted to import vaccines in February but was unsuccessful, prompting him to file a protest. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), a state drugmaker, announced months later that it would import five million doses of the Moderna vaccine for private institutions. Thailand’s demand for mRNA vaccines is increasing. Moderna vaccination pre-orders were quickly filled through private hospitals. Boon chastised the GPO’s methodology, and the GPO filed a slander complaint against the John Hopkins-trained physician on Wednesday. He said he was glad about the complaint since it could lead to the disclosure of evidence and documents in court. In 1976, Boon founded Thonburi Hospital, which has since grown into a network of seven hospitals with 963 registered beds. In 2017, he went public with the company. THG, which also has hospitals in Cambodia and Myanmar, suffered a 215 million baht loss in the first quarter of this year as a result of the epidemic and a reduction in medical tourists. The company is smaller than competitors like Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Pcl, and its chairman was already carving out a niche before the pandemic. In 2017, he opened Jin Wellbeing County, a $500 million’medical city’ for the aged, aimed at Thailand’s aging population and international retirees. (1 US dollar = 32.7500 baht) (Chayut Setboonsarng contributed reporting, and Simon Cameron-Moore edited the piece.)/n
