On 16 June 2020, executives of NSTDA and Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) participated in a signing of an MOU on medical research and innovation. Representing the two organizations were Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul, NSTDA President and Dr. Nares Damrongchai, TCELS CEO. The partnership aims to support medical research, translate research results into practice, and enhance competitiveness of medical device industry to meet international standards. Both parties will join force to support the utilization of advanced technology to accelerate the development of innovations that benefit public health, ranging from cancer drugs, biopharmaceuticals, herbal medicines, medical software, precision medicine, functional and specialty foods. An ecosystem to foster medical device and service industry will be developed which include mechanisms to promote technology transfer and commercialization. Through NSTDA’s connection with the World Business Angel Forum (WBAF) and NSTDA Holding Company, startups and entrepreneurs will gain access to heath-focused investment capital.
This collaboration is set to reinvent and strengthen healthcare industry to propel the government’s Bio-Circular-Green Economic Model (BCG) with the focus on 8 areas, namely 1) personalized medicine, 2) vaccines and new medicines, 3) medical devices, 4) telemedicine, 5) clinical research infrastructure, 6) herbal and traditional medicine, 7) nutraceuticals and 8) medical tourism through 4 main mechanisms, i.e. Research and Development, Innovation and Manufacturing (RDIM); regulation, infrastructure and human resource development.