Thailand is geographically situated in the center of Southeast Asia and connects between mainland and islands.  It is therefore in a hot and humid climatic zone which supports a variety of tropical ecosystems. From the records, as many as of 17 species of non-human primates (NHPs); from prosimians (slow loris) to lesser apes (gibbons) are listed.  However, at the same time of being in the tropical regions, we are facing with many tropical diseases. The vaccines and drugs are needed to combat with those diseases. NHPs are required for vaccine and drug development on toxicity, safety and efficacy tests. Regarding these concerns and with the long-term experience on primates, as a pioneer of primate laboratory in Thailand for more than 45 years, Chulalongkorn University designates to establish “The Primate Research Center” in 2011 and on February 20^th, 2012, it was endorsed by the National Research Council of Thailand to be “The National Primate Research Center of Thailand (NPRCT)”. The establishment of the primate center does not only serve a sustainable self-sufficiency drug and vaccine development in Thailand, but it is also to provide research services for both in country and aboard.

Our goals are 1) to become the national primate research center accredited by the international standards, 2) to become the source of comprehensive information for Asian NHPs and one of the world’s most complete reference sources, and 3) to become the self-supported and sufficient primate production center to fulfill demands for research in vaccines, drugs and food supplement products.