Rangsit, Chinese varsities set up herbal-drug factory

RSU has entered an agreement with Heilongjiang University to collaborate on research to prove the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicines in the treatment of five diseases, including diabetes, gout and insomnia.
The move, it believes, will pave the way for Thai herbal medicines to tap into the global market.
“We are now working on a medicine that can reduce stress,” Krisana Kraisintu said yesterday in her capacity as the dean of RSU Faculty of Pharmacy.
She said the formula had 40 herbal ingredients.
Krisana said RSU and China’s Heilongjiang University would have equal rights to use the research results or any patent that resulted from it.
According to her, the joint research should yield concrete results within three to four years.
Krisana, a former director of the Research and Development Institute at the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 2009 for her decades-long efforts to increase underprivileged patients’ access to medicines.
She said she hoped to see low-cost herbal medicines available for cancer treatments in the near future.
Many Thai herbs such as turmeric, galingale and Eurocoma longifolia jack have medicinal properties, she said.
RSU president Arthit Ourairat said the collaboration between his university and Heilongjiang University had already led to the establishment of the Sun Herb Thai Chinese Manufacturing factory.
He described it as a prototype factory for the manufacture of Chinese-Thai herbal medicines.
“This factory will produce herbal medicines in line with Good Manufacturing Practice standards,” Arthit said.
Krisana said the factory had the capacity to produce 30,000 pills, or between 15,000 and 20,000 capsules, a day.
The factory has already received orders for herbal medicines, she said, adding: “We will take orders for reliable medicinal formulas only.”
The factory is one of 500 herbal-medicine manufacturing facilities across Thailand, and the first to be operated by a university.
“We hope our high manufacturing standards will set a good standard for the overall industry,” Krisana said.