Thai company to develop whooping cough vaccine for poor nations

Ayutthaya, Thailand - A joint Thai-French company on Thursday opened the Thailand's first private research and development centre dedicated to producing affordable vaccines for developing countries, starting with a vaccine to prevent whooping cough.

"The opening of our R&D centre shows our commitment to bridge the huge vaccine gap between industrialized and developing worlds by delivering new and affordable vaccines to emerging countries," said Vitoon Vonghangool, managing director of Bio-Net Asia Company Limited.

Bio-Net Asia, a joint venture between Thai and French investors, will soon start production of a new acellular pertussis vaccine, developed by a team of scientists from Bio-Net and Thailand's Mahidiol University, to prevent whooping cough.

"This will, indeed, be the first time that developing countries will have access to an innovative and affordable vaccine before the industrialized world," said vaccine expert Jean Petre at the opening ceremony for the centre which is located in Ayutthaya province, 90 kilometres north of Bangkok.

The joint venture has invested 300 million baht (8.6 million dollars) in the first phase of the project. "We believe that this project will help stimulate growth of future vaccine developers in our region," said Vitoon.

Source: DPA - 15 January 2009

So it's a copy-and-sell factory?

Nothing wrong with that, but to call it research and then have the aim to sell the same drugs as in the west but cheaper to the local market doesn't really make sense. Unless they think that re-inventing the wheel would be cheaper than copying from the beginning...