The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) joins hands with PTT ready to build the cancer pharmaceutical factory, the first in Thailand that covers all types of oncology products, in hopes to reduce the medicine cost by more than 50 percent.
25 September 2020
The first cancer pharmaceutical factory which covers all types of oncology products in Thailand will lessen the dependency on import worth more than 21 billion baht. Cancer patients would then have more access to high-quality and more effective drugs. In par with an international standard, this factory will result in an advance for Thai pharmaceutical industry to be, also increase in competitiveness and providing medical security for the country. It is expected to be completed and ready to manufacture by the year 2027. On 25 September 2020, Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and the Public Health Minister together with Mr. Supattanapong Punmeechaow, Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister co-chair the signing ceremony for the joint development of the cancer medicine factory project between the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, signed by Dr. Withoon Danwiboon, Managing Director and PTT Public Company Limited, signed by Mr. Auttapol Rerkpiboon, President & Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and the Public Health Minister said that a record from the year 2019, revealed that cancer was the number 1 cause of death for 20 years in a row since 2000, with more than 80,000 Thai people dying from cancer each year and consequently have high medical cost. It affects society and the economy as a whole and is a major obstacle to national development. Subsequently, the fact that Thailand will have its own factory to produce cancer medicines, will help reduce the reliability of having to import cancer medicines from abroad, resulting in self-reliant, and leading to an easy accessibility to medicines. This helps enhancing Thai pharmaceutical industry to be in par on an international standard and providing medical security for the country as well.
Mr. Supattanapong Punmeechaow, Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister said that as Thailand still have limited access to imported medicines especially for cancer that needs continuous treatment, this causes an increase in the price for quality medicines. Therefore, it is necessary to enforce a modern research and medicines manufacturing factory which would in line with the nation’s development policy that focus on Biological Economy, Circular Economy and BCG Economy, which is the New S-Curve of Thailand. The Comprehensive Medical Industry, is one of the industries with high potential that plays an important role in driving the Thai economy toward better Healthcare and Life Sciences which is considered to be at the top of the pyramid in the biological industry.
The cooperation to develop a cancer medicine factory between GPO and PTT is another stepping stone that will help achieve the objective of improving the public health, science and technology, and Thai medicine thus, enhancing the success of the medical research of the country. Moreover, Thailand will also benefit from an increase in the employment rate, reduces the government's expense on treating cancer patients as well as strengthening the capacity and security in the health and economic sustainability.
Dr. Withoon Danwiboon, Managing Director said that, GPO as the main organization for medicines and medical supplies of the country has operated a cancer medicine development program with resources and knowledge for research, development and technology transfer from the world's leading cancer drug manufacturers. Furthermore, GPO has plan to build a factory to manufacture cancer medicines by focusing on covering all types of cancer’s treatment that is known today. Treatment includes Chemotherapy and Targeted Therapy which include Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) tablet, a small molecule that can directly bind to the target within the cell, and Monoclonal antibodies (Biosimilar) most of which cannot passed through the cell membrane however, it can capture its target outside or on the surface of the cell.
The cancer manufacturing factory must have international standard production quality, comprising of safety standard and advance production technology. Thus, GPO together with PTT jointly conducted a study to design a cancer medicine factory. In addition, this factory can support and expand its research from the laboratory experiment to industrial production, henceforth consider to be a sustainable solution toward making the country more medical sustainability and self-reliant.
Mr. Auttapol Rerkpiboon, President & Chief Executive Officer, PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), revealed that “The construction of this cancer drug factory is one of PTT’s intentions to enhance the quality of life of Thai people according to the mission "Powering Thailand's Transformation”. PTT has an aim to drive Thailand toward changes through technology and innovation in all sectors, thus enhancing country’s competitive edge as well as improving the quality of life of the society and Thai people. The benefit gain for the country involves saving lives of today’s cancer patients in the development of the pharmaceutical industry, while also reduce the nations’ financial budgets and dependency on imported medicines from abroad.
Hence forth, with PTT potentialities and expertise in engineering fields and project management skills, the construction of the pharmaceutical manufacturing factory will effectively finish within the limit time periods. By cooperating with the GPO to bring knowledge and experiences in product development and marketing, good management with efficiency and lower cost of productions will provide Thai people an access to quality medicines according to international standards at an affordable price. This however, is a model of the cooperation of Thai state enterprises companies, which work together to help enforce Thailand progress in accordance with the Restart Thailand approach"
The manufacturing factory will be located on the Wanarom Eco Zone Industries or PTT WEcoZI, Ban Chang District, Rayong Province. The next step is the detailed feasibility study which is expected to take approximately 14 months to complete. Afterwards, a study of the results will be summarized for further evaluation moving forward. The construction process plans to start within the year 2022 so that research and development can be set up and then the manufacturing of the medicine can be operated and commercially distributed within the year 2027.
The cancer medicine development project is among the elements that will propel towards the 20 years national strategy of Thailand vision, “Thailand is unwavering, prosperous and sustainable. Thailand development that goes by the philosophy of “Sufficiency Economy”, creating a competitive edge by developing and increasing the proportion of high-value medical and biological industries in order to reduce medical expenses and improve the quality of medical services internationally, resulting in reforming public healthcare for Thailand.