Bioscience Animal Health Plc (BIS), an animal drug and vaccine provider, is preparing to raise funds through an initial public offering on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in mid-2022 to support the development of a new pig vaccine in Thailand.
The new vaccine, to be jointly developed with the National Biotechnology Centre and the National Science Technology Development Agency, will help Thailand reduce the import of expensive animal vaccines.
"We expect to spend around 160 million baht from the funds for vaccine development as well as our production capacity expansion plan for vitamins and food supplements for animals," said Rungroj Thavontanakul, veterinarian and chief financial officer of BIS.
The company aims to become a leading biotech firm and is focusing on joint R&D projects with leading research houses in Thailand.
BIS expects its revenue in 2021 to reach its target of 2 billion baht, thanks to growing demand for animal feed, growth of the pet market and rising Thai food exports.
For the first nine months this year, the company recorded revenue of 1.28 billion baht, compared with 1.41 billion in the same period last year.
In 2019, the company earned 1.52 billion baht. Revenue rose to 1.88 billion baht in 2020.
BIS expects the food industry to resume growth as the global and Thai economies will recover after the pandemic is under control.
Thanawat Kongcharoensombat, a veterinarian and chief executive of BIS, said the company will keep on racking up revenue from its drug and vaccine businesses, with a large customer base in the food and meat export sector.
"We distribute 446 products, including drugs, vaccines and animal products, to customers in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam," he said.
The company earlier co-developed Thailand's first Covid-19 real-time PCR test kits for both humans and animals, which have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.