Thailand’s National Vaccine Institute (NVI) has joined hands with the US Vaccine Research Centre (VRC) for vaccines against tuberculosis, including Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
The government said on Monday that senior officials from the Public Health Ministry led by Pongkasem Kaimook, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary, visited the VRC in the United States on April 20.
The VRC is the world’s leading organisation for vaccine research and has developed 15 vaccine types for diseases such as influenza, Covid-19, Ebola, Zika fever and tuberculosis.
Dr Pongkasem said Richard Koup, the deputy director of the VRC within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, greeted the group.
Thailand’s Department of Medical Sciences and NVI have declared their determination to collaborate with the US VRC to develop a new type of vaccine for tuberculosis.
The government said that Thailand has planned to research four types of tuberculosis and mRNA vaccines.
The Public Health Ministry’s affiliated agencies aim to achieve vaccine security in the country by producing locally-researched mRNA vaccines.
The VRC has further offered Thai researchers to join international tuberculosis control and research networks to contribute to global efforts against tuberculosis, Dr Pongkasem said.
Citing data from the Department of Medical Sciences, Dr Pongkasem said 17 agencies have worked on Genomics Thailand Strategy Roadmap (2022-2025) to develop genomic medicine.
He said the genomic information of over 50,000 patients suffering rare diseases or cancers had been recorded over the years, and the Cancer Genetics Clinic was also established.
The department has additionally included genomic medicine in the universal health scheme, Dr Pongkasem said.
“We still need medical staff and researchers for medical genetics and bioinformatics. The goal is to have 725 medical staff in these fields by 2024,” Dr Pongkasem said.
He further revealed that the Public Health Ministry would develop the genomic medicine research network to collect genomic information for treatment improvement and genomic data analysis.
The United States’ National Human Genome Research Institute is expected to join the International Conference of the Genetics Society of Thailand to provide training for genomic code analysis.
Also, Thailand has received funds for genomics development from the NHGRI, Dr Pongkasem added.
