The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Bangkok is a Special Foreign Activity of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), hosted by the Royal Thai Army and staffed by American and Thai personnel. For more than 50 years, AFRIMS has been the premier platform for the study of infectious diseases of military importance in the Asia-Pacific region.
WRAIR's comprehensive product development infrastructure and an international network of laboratories—including AFRIMS—enable the Institute to be able to respond quickly to emerging infections.
Prior to the Zika outbreak of 2016, AFRIMS had already been conducting biosurveillance for Zika for several years, an effort that gave the Institute a head-start on vaccine development efforts. Working in concert with government, industry and academic collaborators, WRAIR developed a Zika Purified Inactivated Virus (ZPIV) vaccine candidate, moving from initial concept to a Phase 1 clinical study in nine months.
In 2020 AFRIMS began assisting with COVID-19 diagnostics and surveillance.