Thailand defends royal company’s role in vaccine strategy

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s government defended its coronavirus vaccine strategy on Tuesday against opposition criticism that it is too reliant on a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The attack by banned opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit came as Thailand battles its biggest rise in infections and after months of youth-led protests that brought a rare challenge to the monarchy. Criticising the royal family is illegal.

“These baseless and inaccurate accusations shouldn’t be linked to the work of the institution we revere and love,” said Nakorn Premsri, director of the National Vaccine Institute, referring to the monarchy.

He said that royally-owned Siam Bioscience had been the most obvious choice of many companies considered for technology transfer from pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca to make 200 million vaccine doses each…