Siam Bioscience Company, Ltd. ( th, สยามไบโอไซเอนซ์) is a Thai drug manufacturer, owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. In 2009, the project started with a partnership between CPB Equity, subsidiary of

Crown Property Bureau The Crown Property Bureau (CPB) ( th, สำนักงานทรัพย์สินพระมหากษัตริย์; ) is legally the administrative agency responsible for managing the property of the King of Thailand. It has no ...

in the reign of King

Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...

, and a medical human resource and pharmaceutical technology supporter's Mahidol University. Investing around 2,000 million baht, the project proposes were bio-pharmaceutical product research and producing Thai drugs to reduce the dependence on imported drugs. The first chair of the board and the key man driving the project was Sanoh Unakul, one of Siam Cement Group's directors. Apiporn Pasawat, former managing director of SCG Chemical, and Songpon Deechongkit, have been CEO and managing director from the beginning. In 2012,

Thailand Board of Investment The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) or ''The Office of the Board of Investment'' is an agency of the Government of Thailand. Its mission is to promote foreign investment in Thailand by providing information, services, and incentives to interes ...

subsidized Siam Bioscience for 427.50 million baht.

Business partnership

Cuba's Cimab

In 2017, the company was in 70/30 joint venture with Cuba's Abinis (Cimab) from Center of Molecular Immunology to produce and export licensed drugs. Abinis received special tax privileges such as a ten-year tax reduction with help from

. The plant construction started in 2011 and completed in 2013, it is able to produce biopharmaceutical for anaemia treating and reducing side effects of chemo.

Controversy

Lèse-majesté suit

In January 2021,

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit ( th, ธนาธร จึงรุ่งเรืองกิจ, , ; ; born 25 November 1978) is a Thai politician who served as the leader of the Future Forward Party until the party dissolved in 2020. From 200 ...

was charged with

lèse-majesté Lèse-majesté () or lese-majesty () is an offence against the dignity of a ruling head of state (traditionally a monarch but now more often a president) or the state itself. The English name for this crime is a borrowing from the French, w ...

, a strict defamation law, after criticizing

Prayut Chan-o-cha Prayut Chan-o-cha (sometimes spelled Prayuth Chan-ocha; th, ประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา, ; born 21 March 1954) is a Thai politician and retired army officer who has served as the Prime Minister of Thailand since he ...

government mismanagement of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

by relying too much on

AstraZeneca vaccine AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major d ...

which Siam Bioscience, owned by the King, supplies most amount even with a lack of vaccine experience.

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Polic ...

charged him for publishing Jan 18 Facebook Live stream. Later, Puttipong Punnakanta filed the charge through

Technology Crime Suppression Division Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

and the court ordered taking the video down. Later in August 2021, Thanathorn faced two more lèse-majesté charges for the same act.

Subsidy

Aside from BOI subsidy earlier in 2012, in October 2020,

led's government allocated 600 million baht budget to Siam Bioscience through the National Vaccine Institute to develop capacity to produce AstraZeneca vaccine.

criticized a transparency in the subsidy for

for-profit company A for-profit corporation is an organization which aims to earn profit through its operations and is concerned with its own interests, unlike those of the public ( non-profit corporation). Structure A for-profit corporation is usually an organizatio ...

References

{{Reflist Pharmaceutical companies of Thailand Pharmaceutical companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in Thailand Biotechnology companies established in 2009 Vajiralongkorn