Innobic (Asia) Co, the life science arm of national oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc, is seeking a new business partner in Iceland in a fresh move to produce medicines to treat cancer.
The company is in talks with a drug company in Iceland to jointly explore a new business opportunity, said Buranin Rattanasombat, chairman of Innobic and PTT's senior executive vice-president for innovation and new ventures.
Innobic is interested in the technology and know-how of the Iceland-based firm, whose name was not revealed, as it has expertise in making effective drugs to treat cancer. The firm in Iceland has also been granted patents for other drugs that Thailand cannot produce.
Innobic expects to make a significant step forward in the pharmaceutical industry through cooperation with its new business partner.
"Entering the pharmaceutical industry is part of Innobic's business plan that aims to treat patients through modern medicinal products," said Mr Buranin.
Innobic focuses on a variety of businesses under the life science category, ranging from medicines and medical devices to nutrition.
In addition to forming business partnerships through mergers and acquisitions, Innobic is also targeting medicines that are about to lose their protection under patent law and will be available for commercial production.
"These will lead us to a rapid growth in the life science business," said Mr Buranin.
Nat Ativitavas, deputy managing director of Innobic, said the company is seeking medicines, including drugs to treat cancer, which have patents that are going to expire, in order to produce the drugs to treat patients in Thailand.
The patents of at least 2-3 medicines are expected to expire, he said.
"We want to make medicines with fair prices to help patients and reduce their dependence on expensive medicines imported from foreign countries," said Mr Nat.
Innobic entered the pharmaceutical industry with the aim of developing medicinal innovations and building its own "pharmaceutical ecosystem", which covers the research and development of new medicines, a process to manufacture them as well as the marketing and sale of the new products.
This is a way to help Thailand reduce its imports of various medicinal products.
Investments in the pharmaceutical industry will pave the way for Innobic to grow its S-curve businesses.
