Southeast Asia’s top drugmaker eyes Sri Lanka

PT Kalbe Farma, Southeast Asia’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, is seeking a partner in Sri Lanka and eyeing the Middle East as a new market for its nutritional products.

Quoting PT Kalbe Farma President Director Vidjongtius, Bloomberg said the company will initially export its products to Sri Lanka before joining hands with a local company to manufacture its generic drugs.

Kalbe, which started out from a garage in Jakarta five decades ago, derives about 94 percent of its sales from the local market with prescription drugs, consumer health and nutritional products. 

As local sales remain sluggish, the Jakarta-based company is focusing on new markets to broaden its reach beyond Southeast Asia, Vidjongtius said.

“Our focus has been Asean so far and we have been quite successful,” Vidjongtius, who took over as the president director in June 2017, was quoted as saying to Bloomberg.

 “Our ultimate mission is to develop a portfolio for the developed and more regulated countries like the U.S. and Europe. We are upgrading our quality standards to global level.”