Award details

GCRF establishment of biopharmaceutical and animal vaccine production capacity in Thailand and neighbouring South East Asian countries

Reference	BB/P02789X/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Colin Robinson
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Daniel Bracewell, Professor Richard Coker, Dr Franck Courtes, Professor Anne Dell, Professor Stuart Haslam, Dr Peera Jaruampornpan, Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana, Dr Panit Kitsubun, Dr Fatim Lakha, Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay, Professor Christopher Smales
Institution	University of Kent
Department	Sch of Biosciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	4,090,259
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/10/2017
End date	31/03/2022
Duration	54 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

This programme aims to establish state of the art facilities and technology for the production of recombinant proteins, especially biopharmaceuticals and bespoke animal vaccines. Biopharmaceuticals are protein drugs that are used to treat an increasingly wide range of serious diseases, to the extent that half of all new drugs are predicted to be biopharmaceuticals by 2020. They are usually produced in bacterial or animal cells, which makes them difficult to make and far too expensive for the vast majority of patients in developing countries. In Thailand, fewer than 2% of patients have access to anti-cancer biopharmaceuticals that are routinely used in the UK, and which are on the World Health Organisation's list of 'minimum medicine needs for a basic health-care system'. Cancer rates in Thailand are high and rising, so there is a profound need for these medicines. Animal vaccines are required to combat infections in livestock, which is a growing problem in Thailand and other countries due to the increasing demands of growing populations. Many imported vaccines do not work well because they were raised against strains that are simply too different. Thailand and other developing countries suffer massive losses in livestock every year, with some outbreaks leading to 90% loss rates. Countries such as Thailand can only address these problems by producing the biopharmaceuticals themselves, at much lower costs, and by formulating vaccines that are matched to circulating viral strains. Progress in both areas requires large scale facilities for recombinant protein production, usually in E. coli or mammalian cells. This is a highly complex area and most developing countries do not have this capacity - hence they need to import the products. To address this problem the Thai government has established a purpose-built National Biopharmaceutical Facility (NBF), built in 2014 and fully equipped for bacterial/ animal cell systems and product formulation. It has also developeda substantial animal vaccine research group. The UK has world-class expertise in this area of 'bioprocessing' and this project aims to apply this expertise, initially in Thailand and later elsewhere, to develop the NBF into a state of the art facility that can make both biopharmaceuticals and vaccine antigens. The UK team includes experts in every step of the production chain, including design of expression system, expression of proteins at high levels, large scale cultivation, product extraction / purification, and product 'analysis'. The latter area is crucially important; any drugs licensed for human use have to pass extremely stringent quality tests that involve detailed analysis of the final protein product. During the project a group of the UK applicants will work closely with the Thai team to transfer their capabilities to the Thai centres and build up production capacity. This will be aided by seconding the UK researchers to Thailand for long periods, and visits by the Thai researchers to the UK to learn new approaches. At the same time, others UK and Thai team members will work with government ministries, companies and farms to ensure that the products will be distributed effectively so that they reach end users. Finally, representatives from a range of neighbouring South East Asian countries will be involved in the network meetings so that they are fully aware of the programme's progress and outputs and able to use the information and technology to initiate their own production pipelines.

Impact Summary

The aim of this programme is to enable state of the art capacity and capability for recombinant protein production in Thailand and other South East Asian countries, with a focus on the production of (i) biopharmaceuticals and (ii) veterinary vaccines. The primary beneficiaries will be: 1. The population of Thailand, through the provision of advanced medicines and increased secure food security. - the programme will result in a pipeline for biopharmaceutical production that is urgently needed in Thailand and neighbouring countries. The research will lead to the large-scale production of protein drugs that are routinely used to treat a number of cancer and autoimmune diseases in high-income countries. Only a small fraction (fewer than 2%) of Thai patients currently have access to these drugs but this project will result in large-scale, cost-effective production systems that will enable much greater patient penetration rates to be attained. Cancer rates, in particular, are very high in Thailand and the availability of these medicines will have a dramatic positive effect on survival rates and life expectancy for patients. - The programme will also produce veterinary vaccines against major swine viral diseases that cause massive livestock losses. By preventing or minimising such outbreaks, the work will enhance the productivity of the Thai swine industry, provide better nutrition and safeguard jobs for approximately 200,000 households. 2. The populations of neighbouring South East Asian countries, particularly Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao DPR. - representatives from these countries will be involved in programme network meetings from the outset in order to disseminate findings at a regional level. Every assistance will be provided in order to assist these countries to start their own production facilities. - Several Thai companies will be involved in the production, sales and marketing of these new biopharmaceuticals and vaccines, and some of these companies arelarge multinationals with bases in the countries listed above. This will provide a natural outlet for distribution of new products within the SE Asian region. 3. The UK Bioprocessing and animal vaccine industries and academic communities. - while the primary impact is intended to be in SE Asia, the programme will bring together highly-rated UK groups in order to develop effective new platforms and processes for the production of these important molecules. The programme will differ from traditional production systems by focusing more intensively on cost, so that the products can be made more cheaply, ensuring that the products benefit more SE Asian end users. It is undoubtable that the establishment of integrated production processes will be of interest to UK companies and academics, who are very likely to adapt elements of the programme for their own uses. The UK houses some of the world's most prominent biopharmaceutical and animal vaccine companies, many of whom already collaborate with one or more of the applicants. The development of new expression, cultivation, downstream processing systems is certain to be of interest to such companies, as are product analysis data on the proteins that the new facilities generate.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Industrial Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	RC GCRF
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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