Thailand’s Baiya Phytopharm wants to develop the country’s first plant-based Covid vaccine.
The startup, founded in 2018 by Dr Suthira Taychakhoonavudh and Dr Waranyoo Phoolcharoen, is working on a vaccine using Australian tobacco leaves.
Suthira, a 37-year-old lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, told CNBC’s “Management Asia” that she and her team of scientists wanted to “make a difference” in transforming Thailand from a vaccine importer. become a vaccine manufacturer.
Baiya is the first Thai company to join the university CU Innovation Center, a research center for startups, aims to develop technology to produce recombinant proteins that can produce drugs and vaccines.
The 3-year-old startup is funded by grants from Chulalongkorn University alumni and the Thai government. It also raised about $3 million in crowdfunding.
The company completed phase one of a human trial of a plant-based Covid vaccine last December. No plant-based Covid vaccines exist anywhere, though at least another one besides Baiya’s is in development.
“So far, what we know is … all the volunteers are safe. And looking at the safety record, we’re very pleased with that,” said Suthira.
She added that it is still too early to be certain of its effectiveness rate, but the goal is to use an available vaccine as the standard.
The drug company said it expects phase two trials to begin in February and phase three trials in June. It hopes to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration of Thailand for vaccine approval by the third or fourth quarter of this year.
The company says it can quickly increase production capacity if a vaccine is approved.
“Currently, our facilities can produce about 5 million doses of vaccine per month, which is about 60 million doses of vaccine per year,” says Suthira.
She added that similar production facilities will be able to produce vaccines not only for Thailand but also for the region.
Baiya wants to show that Thailand can “invent new vaccines and new drugs to solve its own public health problems”, she said. The company is using the tobacco plant itself to develop anti-cancer drugs and anti-aging treatments.
As a startup, Baiya is yet to make money, but Suthira said the goal is not to maximize profits but to build a credible research industry in Thailand that will attract talent from around the world. next system.
“And we want to make the pharmaceutical products we make an affordable product,” says Suthira.
