TherapyEdge (ABL group) and TCELS To Cooperate for the National HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program in Thailand Using The TherapyEdge-ViroScore System

LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The multi-centre and prospective surveillance program of HIV drug resistance emergence and transmission in Thailand starts in 2008

The Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS, Bangkok (Thailand)), TherapyEdge Inc. (TE; Boston (MA)) and Advanced Biological Laboratories (ABL), S.A (Luxembourg), today announced the completion of a partnership agreement to set up a national, multi-centric, prospective HIV/AIDS surveillance program in Thailand for the 3 forthcoming years.

Under the terms of the agreement, ABL-TE will equip the fifteen major hospitals and reference laboratories in Thailand with the Thai Edition of the TherapyEdge-ViroScore platform. TCELS and ABL-TE will jointly fund the surveillance system for the program. Cybeles Life Science (Germany) did lead the communication of the project between the parties and the local subsidiary will provide technical support. The Pharmacogenomics Group of TCELS, directed by Prof. Wasun Chantratita will conduct the daily operations and will handle the studies of data collected through this network of excellence. All the partners will exploit associated know-how.

"The TherapyEdge and ViroScore Suite systems, Thai Edition, will be the main software platform for HIV/AIDS surveillance in Thailand which now allows us to have an electronic patient database. It will be the key for developing more efficient and safer therapies. This will also reduce the time and procedures to discover and develop new drugs resulting in lower overall costs and expenses in medications for the public health system”, said Dr Tongchai Thavichachart, CEO of TCELS.

"After we have tested TherapyEdge-ViroScore extensively for 2 years with adaptations to suit our local demand, it turns out to be an excellent decision support system for HIV/AIDS disease management at the national level for resource-limited countries like Thailand. In 2008-2010, TherapyEdge-ViroScore will be served to 15 HIV/AIDS hospitals nationwide with the support from TCELS and Thai Ministry of Public Health --U.S. CDC Collaboration (TUC). We expect to see significant improvements of HIV/AIDS treatment in hospitals equipped with the TherapyEdge-ViroScore Suite system when compared to the hospitals using only HIV/AIDS standard treatment guidelines. We are confident that this advanced platform could be practically applied to improve the health of HIV-1 infected Thai patients and would reduce in general medical expenditures in developing countries such as Thailand," said Pr Wasun Chantratita.

“This partnership with TCELS and Thai scientific experts provides the ABL group with a novel experience for the deployment of its unique technology. The Thai government and local experts have shown in the past significant successes to apply treatment programs, and continue creating innovative partnerships to assess the efficiency of their current and future HIV/AIDS programs,” said Dr Chalom B. Sayada, CEO of ABL-TE.

About TherapyEdge, Inc. and ABL, S.A.

TherapyEdge and ABL's expertise lies within infectious diseases, with particular focus on resistance patterns and clinical outcome predictors for HIV-1, tuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. http://www.therapyedge.com

About TCELS

The Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) was established by the Royal Decree endorsed on June 18, 2004 and serves as an independent public organization under supervision of the Royal Thai Government. TCELS is focusing on investment and development of life sciences business through partnership with foreign investors, as well as promoting life sciences research and developments, with the goal to make Thailand become the world’s leader and center of life sciences investment. This will be a sustainable strategy to strengthen Thai economy and improve the quality of life for Thai people. http://www.tcels.or.th/en/index.asp