In establishing biopharmaceutical and animal vaccine production capacity in Thailand and neighbouring South East Asian countries an essential component is awareness of the needs and demands for these products both within Thailand and across the region.

Work program five’s objective is to provide contextual mapping and inform research to impact. It is led by Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana, Director of the Virology and Antibody Technology Unit at BIOTEC; Dr Panit Kitsubun, Plant Director of the National Biopharmaceutical Facility (NBF) and Head of the Biopharmaceutical Development Research and Development Laboratory at BIOTEC; Professor Richard Coker and Dr Fatim Lakha, both from LSHTM’s department of Global Health and Development.

The work program aims to:

• Provide ongoing insight to the cultural, academic, public policy and economic landscape with respect to biotechnology and other relevant sectors in Thailand.
• Undertake an epidemiologically-based needs assessment along with a comparative stakeholder/ corporate assessment and analysis. This will allow for a better understanding of the needs and priorities of the population. It will also highlight areas of unmet need and provide a clear set of objectives to work towards meeting those needs. Finally, it will guide rational discussions about how to use available resources in the most efficient and effective way, enable setting of priorities and ensure a smooth passage both in the development and knowledge-sharing phase as well as the scale-up and dissemination phases.
• Provide 2, 5 and 10 year projections of needs and demands which will assist in planning ‘scale up’ and will also assist with data requirements for production estimates.