Efavirenz listed in World Health Organization Prequalification Program: A successful case study of a public private collaboration for technology transfer in pharmaceutical production and quality control in Thailand:(TJPS-2020-0249.R2)

Pharmaceutical technology transfer is an important tool for enhancing production development and quality control. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) is the state enterprises under the Ministry of Public Health, whose main mission is to produce high quality medicines with reasonable price to increase accessibility to the Thai people. GPO has received the technology transfer from an overseas pharmaceutical company for the successful production of the Efavirenz 600 mg tablet that was certified by the WHO Prequalification Program. The research objective was to study how this success has been achieved with the support of technology transference as well as the relevant success factors by investigating the relevant documents and the in-depth interviews with the stakeholders in GPO and the Ministry of Public Health, both in the policy and operational levels, and the transfering team. The results describe the transfer process, the transferred technology, and the collaborative process of the transferrers and transferees. The success comes from several factors including clear and continuous supportive policies at the national and corporate levels, a good relationship with the transferrer and GPO’s internal preparative process to be ready for technology transfer. The lessons learned should benefit other local manufacturers to prepare for technology transfer.