Tag: Thailand

Thailand Tobacco Authority Eyes Cannabis

Photo: cytis | Pixabay
The Tobacco Authority of Thailand (TOAT) is hoping that sales of cannabis and hemp extracts will help compensate for deteriorating income from tobacco production, reports the Bangkok Post.
The TOAT is drafting a ministerial regulation to give the organization the authority to grow and produce extracts from cannabis and hemp, which can be used in medicine and cosmetics, said TOAT governor Panuphol Rattanakanjanapatra.
Although the Tobacco Act stipulates TOAT can produce tobacco leaves and other plants, clarity is needed on TOAT conducting R&D on cannabis and hemp for commercial purposes.
The business value of cannabis and hemp could reach tens of billions of baht, according to Panuphol.
At present, a two-tier system is applied for excise duties levied on cigarettes. A 20 percent tax rate is applied to the retail price for packs costing up to THB60 ($1.95).
If the retail price exceeds THB60 per pack, a 40 percent tax rate is applied.
A flat tax rate of 40 percent was scheduled to be applied in October 2019, regardless of the retail price, but there has been opposition from the authority and tobacco farmers.
March 15, 2021
Joining the Race

Suthira Taychakhoonavudh (left) and Waranyoo Phoolcharoen
Thailand is developing its own tobacco plant-based coronavirus vaccine.
By Stefanie Rossel
It’s been almost a year now since Covid-19 broke out, and the pandemic still rages around the world. The spread of the virus has set off a global race for a vaccine—consensus among experts is that only an effective inoculation will end the contagion. As of Sept. 28, 40 candidate vaccines were in clinical evaluation and 151 were in the preclinical trial phase, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, speed isn’t everything. Russia, which on Aug. 11 became the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, soon faced criticism by researchers who highlighted questionable data in the vaccine trial results. AstraZeneca and Oxford University temporarily put on hold clinical trials for their Covid-19 serum after a participant showed an adverse reaction. In the U.S., President Donald Trump has politicized coronavirus vaccine approvals, insisting a serum was likely to be approved by election day (Nov. 3), despite reservations expressed by regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
While the trials are still ongoing, the WHO, physicians and vaccine manufacturers have already begun to develop different scenarios for the distribution of a serum once it has been approved. A vaccine shortage is likely in the early stages, and the issue of fair sharing has yet to be resolved. Several high-income countries have already secured contracts with leading pharmaceutical and life science companies, putting lower income countries at risk of missing out on a coronavirus vaccine.
To avoid this scenario, Thailand is developing its own vaccine. The kingdom is keen to avoid a repeat of its 2009 experience when the swine flu hit Asia. Although a vaccine against the swine flu was ready within two months after the outbreak, and Thailand had worked out deals with overseas developers to buy 2 million doses, the goods arrived only after the pandemic had subsided. By the time it was over, the virus had infected more than 47,000 Thais and killed 347.

First of its kind
Although Thailand has been doing comparatively well in the Covid-19 crisis, with roughly 3,600 infections out of its 68 million population by the end of September, the country nevertheless wants to avoid depending on imports. In August, the Thai government gave thb1 billion ($31.6 million) to the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) to support development and production of vaccines against the coronavirus and other diseases. Compared to other nations, the sum is small—the U.S. federal government, for example, has invested more than $9 billion, spread among seven companies, in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine. But if one of Thailand’s vaccine candidates will be approved for human trials, it will be the first such anticoronavirus vaccine developed in Southeast Asia.
“Governmental funding in Thailand is quite limited,” explains Waranyoo Phoolcharoen, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and head of development for a Covid-19 vaccine candidate. “To date, most vaccines are imported. There is currently no facility to produce the vaccine entirely—from laboratory to manufacturing and human trial—in Thailand.”
Chulalongkorn University, which has two centers in vaccine research and development, has become the focus of present vaccine developments against the coronavirus in Thailand. One initiative has applied mRNA technology transferred from the U.S., and another is using tobacco plants to develop an inoculation.
Tobacco plants have proven their potential as an efficient biopharmaceutical producer of vaccines. It’s a road other contenders in the race for a cure have chosen as well, among them U.S.-based Kentucky BioProcessing, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco, and Medicago, a privately held Canadian biotech company in which Philip Morris International bought a stake in 2008.
Basically, the manufacturing process involves identification and reception of genetic sequences from a pandemic strain to produce a virus-like particle (VLP), or antigen. VLPs resemble a virus, allowing them to be recognized readily by the immune system, but they lack the core genetic material, making them noninfectious and unable to replicate. Before the genetic construct representing the protein of interest is inserted, plants are seeded, germinate and grow. They are then genetically modified with the VLP in a technique known as transient expression.
With this transformation, plants incubate for several days during which they are reproducing the target protein. At this point, they are harvested and crushed to create a green-juice slurry. This liquid passes through filtration processes and sophisticated purification techniques to produce a final product. The process, which employs Nicotiana benthamiana, a close relative of the tobacco type used for cigarette production, can deliver a vaccine for testing in less than a month after production of the VLP.
Using tobacco plant technology has several advantages over conventional vaccine production processes. It can reproduce the antigen consistently with high fidelity and allows for rapid production of scale within a short period of time. It is also potentially safer given the fact that tobacco plants can’t host pathogens that cause human disease. In contrast to conventional vaccines, which often require refrigeration, a tobacco plant-based formulation remains stable at room temperature, making it suitable for distribution in warmer climates.
For Thailand, using tobacco has the additional advantage that the country can rely on its own resources, says Phoolcharoen. According to The Bangkok Post, Thailand has 10,450 tobacco growers, of whom 15 have production capacity of more than 12,000 kg a year. “Although we use different species of the tobacco used for cigarette manufacture, people have approached us and want to grow tobacco for our vaccine. The cost for tobacco cultivation is very low in Thailand—farmers view it as a business opportunity. Although funding is limited, molecular pharming matches the country.”

Plant technology reproduces antigens with high fidelity and allows manufacturers to rapidly scale up production.
A chance for young researchers
For Phoolcharoen and her team, the Covid-19 vaccine project represents a unique opportunity. Eighteen months ago, she established Baiya Phytopharm, a biopharmaceutical startup, together with Suthira Taychakhoonavudh. The plant technology-based platform can produce biopharmaceutical products within weeks rather than months or years, which results in faster and lower cost research and development, Phoolcharoen points out. The team also worked on a cure for the hand-mouth-foot virus, which is widespread among infants in Thailand. The company also has products against rabies, cancer and the Ebola virus in the pipeline. With the advent of Covid-19, the platform shifted its focus and capacity completely to produce SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
If approved by Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company’s vaccine would be the first to be produced from the laboratory to clinical trials in the country, Phoolcharoen says. “The business environment in Thailand differs largely insofar that the big pharmaceutical players only have their marketing side in our country but not the R&D and manufacture. For graduates in Thailand’s pharma industry, this means that there are hardly any adequate jobs. As a consequence, there is a lot of brain drain among highly qualified young scientists.”
Baiya Phytopharm aims to promote the commercialization of biopharma research in Thailand. “With the startup, I wanted to create a workplace for my students,” explains Phoolcharoen. “The company is based on the campus. My partner, the CEO of Baiya Phytopharm, is also a faculty member in the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences [at] Chulalongkorn University. She is a pharmacoeconomist taking care of business models, marketing and fundraising. I am responsible for research and use the platform for my students to give them practical lessons and experience. The students are all employees of Baiya Phytopharm and use the company’s project as their theses. We have post-doctoral researchers, Ph.D., master and undergraduate students presently work on different variations of the Covid-19 vaccine. This way, the students learn about planning, marketing—and about being rushed. We hope that there will be more biopharma startups like us in Thailand. The ecosystem will build up the capacity in the country, and in the future, we will be able to develop drugs and vaccines in the region, for the region.”

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Positive results
In March 2020, Baiya Phytopharm launched a Covid-19 test kit and started studying its vaccine candidates in mice. Further trials of the vaccine on monkeys in June showed promising results: All primates generated neutralizing antibodies, which means that the antibodies induced by the candidate vaccine can block the coronavirus from penetrating or damaging cells. Meanwhile, the company has started toxicology testing on rats and is preparing for the clinical trial phase, which it hopes to begin next year in June.
Much of the timing depends on finding the right facilities for the production process. “In order to be allowed for use in humans, the tobacco plants with the inserted Covid-19 proteins need to be purified; tobacco proteins have to be removed,” says Phoolcharoen. “There are only two facilities in Thailand which can be used, but they have never done any purification of proteins.”
Her company is in talks with the NVI to see if it is ready to collaborate in the purification process of the vaccine candidates. If so, the vaccine could be ready for human trials around the beginning of next year. Otherwise, a new plant would have to be built, delaying the process by about nine months. Once facilities are available, more than 10 million doses of the vaccine could be produced in one month. The aim is to offer an affordable vaccine, possibly also to other Southeast Asian countries.
So far, Baiya Phytopharm mostly used the co-founders’ money and the donation for a Covid-19 test kit for its vaccine research. However, the startup is raising funds to finance the phase I clinical trial and is hoping for private investors. “We will start with a crowdfunding campaign,” says Phoolcharoen. To her, the vaccine development is a long-term engagement. “We know that something like the Covid-19 outbreak is likely to happen again. So it makes sense to be prepared.”

Baiya Phytopharm employees are working on different variations of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.

November 1, 2020
Tobacco-Based Covid Vaccine Passes Trials

Photo: Baiyaphytopharm
A Thai Covid-19 vaccine produced with proteins from tobacco leaves has proved successful in animal tests, reports The Bangkok Post.
Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Disease Health Science Center, said the latest vaccine had been tested on mice and monkeys with satisfactory results and will now go through a purification process before it is tested in human trials.
Developed Baiyaphytopharm, the vaccine is produced by integrating the virus’ DNA into tobacco leaves. The plant responds to the DNA and produces the desired proteins about a week later. Hemachudha said the vaccine not only produces antibodies but can also stimulate T cells to produce antibodies themselves when meeting the virus.
Bai Ya is reportedly in talks with the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) to see if it is ready to collaborate in the purification process of the vaccine candidate. If the NVI agrees to take part, the vaccine will be ready for human trials in three months.
If not, a new plant will have to be built, delaying human trials by nine months.
After human trials, the vaccine’s manufacturing at an industrial scale would take place quickly, according to Hemachudha. He added that the tobacco leaves can grow to produce more than 10 million doses of the vaccine in one month.
Philip Morris International-backed Medicago and British American Tobacco are also working on tobacco-based Covid-19 vaccines.
September 1, 2020
Philippines-Thailand trade dispute reignites

Photo: hectorgalarza from Pixabay
The Philippines has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement body (DSB) to suspend the country’s concessions to Thailand for products such as motor vehicles exported to Manila.

Thailand has continued to avoid compliance with the WTO ruling that it must align its unfair tax treatment on Philippine cigarette exports, according to the Philippines.

“There are only two options under the reverse-consensus rule of DSU Article 22.6: the DSB granting authorization to suspend concessions or the DSB referring the matter to arbitration,” said the Philippines. “At this meeting of the DSB, the Philippines asks once again that the DSB grant the Philippines the authority it seeks.”

The Philippines sought retaliation against Thailand from the WTO to force the country to align its tax treatment on Philippine cigarettes in February 2020. The WTO first ruled favorably in 2011 and the Philippines won subsequent appeals from Thailand. The Philippines requested from the WTO a suspension of $594 million in trade concessions.
August 24, 2020
Fresh thinking needed
A network of tobacco farmers in Thailand is calling on political parties to help ease the impact of a 40 percent rise in cigarette excise tax that is scheduled for October 1, according to a story in The Nation.
Songkran Pakdeejit, president of the Burley Tobacco Farmers Association of Phetchabun, met yesterday with representatives of various political parties to discuss the effect the proposed new tax rate would have on tobacco growers.
Songkran said about 50,000 tobacco-grower households in the North, Northeast, and upper Central regions were already struggling because of annual increases in cigarette tax rates. These increases reduced the state-run Tobacco Monopoly’s cigarette sales and, therefore, its production and the amount of tobacco it bought from local growers.
Growers were very concerned that they were going to lose their livelihoods.
The network has reportedly asked the authorities to delay enforcement of the next tax rise, but has not received a response.
But because an election is due to be held in the next two weeks, Songkran asked the parties to recognize growers’ concerns and bring the issue to the attention of their parties.
At the meeting, the Thai Tobacco Trade Association released a poll result showing most grocery shops were opposed to the tax increase. Jointly conducted by the association and Nida Poll in February, the poll showed 81 per cent of respondents from 1,056 retailers across the country believed the new tax would increase the sale of illicit cigarettes. Ninety-one per cent of respondents said they would be affected by the new tax rate.
The Association director Waraporn Namat said that in the past four to five years the government had gradually increased the tobacco tax rate in the hope of reducing the number of smokers. “But the number hasn’t decreased significantly and instead they opt for buying illicit cigarettes or tobacco which are cheaper,” she added.
March 15, 2019
Vaping ‘ordeal’ in Thailand
A French woman who was in Phuket, Thailand, for a family holiday in January found herself in court and later deported, thousands of euro poorer, because of an incident involving a vaping device.
According to a story by Tanyaluk Sakoot for thephuketnews.com, Cecilia Cornu, 31, was caught by police in the resort area of Karon holding an e-cigarette [the picture that accompanied the story seemed to show a heat-not-burn device] on January 30. She had been on a scooter with her fiancée, as her parents and brother followed behind.
Cornu alleged she was stopped by four police officers who snatched the e-cigarette and demanded B40,000 [an allegation that was denied by the police], which she refused to pay.
She was then arrested and taken to Karon Police Station where, she alleged, officers tried to bully her into paying a bribe.
Cornu was charged, her passport confiscated, and a trial date set for February 11. Her return flight was scheduled for the following day.
She posted bail of B100,000 and was released the same day pending trial.
On February 11, Cornu attended Phuket Provincial Court where she was convicted for the offence [presumably of being in possession of a vaping device] and fined B827 (€23).
She was then sent to the Phuket Immigration facility prior to being transferred to Bangkok for deportation.
She said that in Bangkok she spent four days and three nights in a prison cell shared with 60 other women in dire conditions, which included sleeping on a hard, dirty floor with no sheets or mattresses.
Cornu claims the ordeal cost her about €8,000 euros (B286,000) in legal fees and travel expenses.
March 4, 2019
Tax-induced price hike
The days of being able to buy Thai cigarettes for 60 baht a pack will come to an end later this year, according to a Thai Visa News story.
The prices of all the cheaper brands produced by the Thai Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) will be increased to at least 93 baht from October because of an excise tax increase.
This means that smokers will have to pay an extra 33 baht per pack on five brands.
Cigarettes currently priced in the 90-baht range might also face a price increase.
The director of the TTM Daonoi Suthiniphaphan said this would pave the way for packs selling at 100 baht per pack.
She defended the increases by saying they were not aimed at increasing TTM profits. The new prices were merely in line with new excise tax rates.
Meanwhile, the Daily News reported that a 55 baht per pack cigarette recently introduced to compete with foreign brands would be one of those hit by the higher excise tax rate.
February 5, 2019
Caught on camera
Any person who ‘catches’ someone smoking outside a designated smoking area at Phuket International Airport, Thailand, now stands to receive a B1,500 reward, according to a story in The Phuket News.
But it’s not a case of simply reporting the smoker.
According to the airport’s general manager, Thanee Choungchoonyone, speaking on Friday; to claim the ‘reward’, a person must see a fellow person smoking anywhere other than a designated smoking area, take a photo of that person and show it to airport staff. But to receive the reward, the smoker must be caught.
As from yesterday, the inside and outside areas of the six international airports operated by Airports of Thailand have been designated non-smoking, except for designated smoking areas.
The six airports are Phuket International Airport (PIA), Chiang Mai International Airport, Chiang Rai International Airport, Don Mueang International Airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport, and Hat Yai International Airport.
Thanee said the move was aimed at ramping up enforcement of the Tobacco Products Control Act B.E. 2017, under which PIA, a government facility, was designated non-smoking.
The News said also that he talked of a possible disturbance to non-smokers in and around the airport as being one reason behind the decision to offer rewards.
“There are six clearly marked rooms in the airport in which people are allowed to smoke,” Thanee said, before adding that anyone found violating the law would be liable to a fine of up to B5,000.
February 4, 2019
Thailand reviewing ban
A review of Thailand’s ban on electronic cigarettes is being launched in light of difficulties in enforcing the law, according to a by Eleven story citing The Nation.
A working panel led by the Commerce Ministry has assigned the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre (TRC) to conduct the review.
The panel was set up late last year to reconcile conflicting opinions about the ban and how to enforce it, said its chair, Keerati Rushchano, deputy director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade.
Thailand had banned the import, sale and servicing of e-cigarettes in 2014, but since then the authorities had encountered problems with law enforcement, Keerati said.
For instance, the tourism authority had raised concerns that foreign tourists were complaining they had not heard about the ban before arriving in the country.
In addition, while the law banned the import and sale of the devices there was no specific prohibition against using them, a situation that had caused confusion among law enforcers.
The TRC is expected to take about six months to complete its review.
January 17, 2019
Commended for plain packs
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday commended Thailand’s tobacco control measures as it prepares to become the first country in Asia to require that all tobacco products are sold in standardized packaging, according to a story in The Bangkok Post.
“Thailand’s bold steps against tobacco – the single most important cause of preventable deaths worldwide – are commendable and reflect the country’s earnest efforts to promote the health and well-being of its people,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO Southeast Asia, was quoted as saying.
The new standardized-packaging regulations comprise the Government’s latest effort to curb smoking. They add to the 2017 Tobacco Control Act, which mandated a minimum age of 20 for tobacco purchases, and banned single-stick sales and tobacco advertisements, promotions and sponsorship.
As elsewhere, the standardized packaging regulations are due to restrict the use of logos, colors, brand images and promotional information, leaving only brand names and product names displayed in a standard color and font.
The Post said that under the new law, all tobacco products would have to be sold in standardized packs by September 2019. Thailand already had graphic health warnings covering 85 percent of tobacco-product packaging, it added.
Thailand has more than 11 million smokers, with, it is estimated, one in five Thai adults smoking.
Nearly 50 percent of men between the ages of 35 and 54 smoke, while one in every six Thais between the ages of 13 and 17 uses tobacco.
December 20, 2018