Following the 2019 approval from the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Committee of a plan to set up a genome sequencing facility aiming to raise Thailand’s competitiveness in the medical industry, Thailand Genomics Sequencing Center was established as a collaboration between Eastern Economic Corridor Office, the Health Systems Research Institute, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation.
The Thailand Genomics Sequencing Center, one of the key focus areas of the Thai government’s USD 150 million five-year plan known as Genomics Thailand, is already in the process of collecting the DNA of 50,000 Thais to build a genomics “library” that will be key to further research and service into fields such as precision medicine, and pharmacogenomics.
According to the EEC’s Special Advisor for the medical sector, terms of reference for the project are being prepared and international bidding will soon follow in order to find a knowledge partner to manage it in a joint venture with Thai partners, thus offering an interesting opportunity in a market that is forecast to more than double to USD 50 billion within five years, according to market analysts.
(Sources: Bangkokpost; PRNewswire; Biospectrumasia)
