February 10, 2009
Bio-Net to spend B300m
By: VALISA KRAIRIKSH
Published: 10/02/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business
Encouraged by Board of Investment incentives, Bio-Net Asia Ltd has decided to push through its 300-million-baht two-year investment plan for research and development of a second-generation vaccine for pertussis. Better known as the whooping cough, the ailment affects 50 million people and kills 300,000 per year worldwide, placing it amongst the most deadly vaccinable diseases.
Bio-Net Asia's partner, Mahidol University, developed a vaccination that requires five times less dosage of the active ingredient, which could lead to lower production costs.
Normally, it costs 450 to 500 baht per dose, and is currently used only in Europe, North America, Japan and Korea.
''It's definitely a good time to invest. We decided against it five years ago, but thanks to a new category of the BoI, we decided to move operations to Thailand,'' said Dr Pham Hong Thai, the company's joint managing director.
BoI privileges granted to biotech projects include an eight-year waiver of corporate income tax and tariffs on imported machineries.
Bio-Net Asia plans to build a factory that would be able to produce up to 50 million doses of the vaccine per year, 95% of which will be exported, if the research and development phase go according to plan, he said.
''If we develop an efficient means to produce the vaccine, then we'll invest about $US50 million over five years into a production facility,'' he added.
The first generation, known as a whole cell vaccine, is widely used in Thailand but has been out of the market in most industrialised nations due to the gradual increase in harmful side effects incurred with each of the 4-5 doses.
''Because of this, parents usually opt to stop before the series is complete'' he acknowledged.
Current second generation vaccines produced by foreign firms are 'acellular vaccines' while Mahidol developed a 'recombinant acellular vaccine'.
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