{"id":11035,"date":"2019-01-02T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/?p=11035"},"modified":"2020-10-07T22:12:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:12:49","slug":"establishment-of-biopharmaceutical-and-animal-vaccine-production-capacity-in-thailand-and-neighboring-south-east-asian-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/en\/establishment-of-biopharmaceutical-and-animal-vaccine-production-capacity-in-thailand-and-neighboring-south-east-asian-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"Establishment of Biopharmaceutical and Animal Vaccine Production Capacity in Thailand and Neighboring South East Asian Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>The Team<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>UK<\/strong><strong>Colin Robinson and C. Mark Smales,&nbsp;<\/strong>University of Kent<strong>Dan Bracewell and Tarit Mukhopadhyay<\/strong>, University College London<strong>Anne Dell and Stuart Haslam<\/strong>, Imperial College<strong>Richard Coker and Fatim Lakha<\/strong>, London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Thailand<\/strong><strong>Anan Jongkaewwattana and Peera Jaruampornpan<\/strong>Virology and Cell Technology Lab, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology<strong>Panit Kitsubun and Lalintip Hocharoen<\/strong>National Biopharmaceutical Facility, King Mongkut&#8217;s University of Technology Thonburi<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Funded by a total of \u00a3 3.93 million for a period of 4 years from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the project brings together UK and Thai experts to establish facilities and technology for recombinant protein production in Thailand, especially biopharmaceuticals and animal vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biopharmaceuticals are revolutionizing the world of medicine and saving the lives of thousands of people. Patients suffering from cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and other health problems benefit from biopharmaceuticals\u2019 high efficacy and few side effects. The efficacy and safety of biopharmaceutical products dictate pharma companies to command high prices for their innovative drugs which, unfortunately, hinder patient access in developing countries such as Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/en\/images\/stories\/News\/2019\/GCRF\/GCRF.jpg\" alt=\"GCRF\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Veterinary vaccines are important for animal health, animal welfare and food production. The burden of infectious diseases in livestock is a major constraint to sustained agricultural development and food security. Swine industry is massive in Thailand, with more than 200,000 households maintaining pigs. However, the industry continues to be plagued by viral epidemics. Thailand currently imports all of its animal vaccines but they are often ineffective as local viral strains are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/en\/images\/stories\/News\/2019\/GCRF\/GCRF1.jpg\" alt=\"GCRF1\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To solve the above issues, the project seeks to establish a state-of-the-art technical capacity for Thailand to produce their own recombinant proteins. Dr. Kitsubun points out that \u201cThailand has recently built National Biopharmaceutical Facility to cater the needs for the country to have facilities for large scale recombinant protein production\u201d. Jointly managed by BIOTEC and KMUTT, the facility is designed to produce both biopharmaceuticals and animal vaccines which is a perfect fit for the Thai-UK collaboration. With the support of the UK team in protein production, protein purification and protein analytics to ensure that products will comply with regulations required, the ultimate goal is to provide life-saving drugs which are expensive and denied to most Thai patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As well as medicines for the treatment of human diseases, the team also seeks to produce a suite of high-value veterinary vaccines against major porcine diseases with reduced manufacturing costs, resulting in prevention of losses in Thai pig farms due to viral diseases. Dr. Jaru-ampornpan emphasizes that \u201cthe locally-produced vaccines would reduce foreign dependence and increase food security and would better match locally-circulating pathogens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commencing in October 2017, the project now progresses to the next steps: express additional biopharmaceuticals, scale up expression levels and work with FDA to ensure regulatory approval. Prof. Colin said \u201cWe need to work with Thai authorities to ensure we meet Thailand\u2019s needs\u201d. New vaccine candidates will also be tested for efficacy. Collaboration will also be explored and expanded in South East Asian countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/en\/images\/stories\/News\/2019\/GCRF\/GCRF2.JPG\" alt=\"GCRF2\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To widely introduce the project to relevant stakeholders, the British Embassy in Bangkok hosted a showcase event for the consortium on November 28, 2018, with over 100 delegates from SE Asian institutions and companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is a \u00a31.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government in late 2015 to support cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/research\/global-challenges-research-fund\/\">https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/research\/global-challenges-research-fund\/<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Team UKColin Robinson and C. Mark Smales,&nbsp;University of KentDan Bracewell and Tarit Mukhopadhyay, University College LondonAnne Dell and Stuart Haslam, Imperial CollegeRichard Coker and Fatim Lakha, London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine ThailandAnan Jongkaewwattana and Peera JaruampornpanVirology and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biotec.or.th\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}