Leading tissue and cord blood banking company CyGenics Ltd. (ASX: CYN) today announced Indonesia's leading pharma company, Kalbe Farma, has taken a 49% stake in its cord blood banking subsidiary, CordLife Indonesia.
This is a further, important step in CyGenics strategy of focusing on its core business of tissue and cord blood banking, and greatly strengthens its presence in a large and important market in the Asian region. The expansion of the Indonesian operations is in line with CyGenics' focus on revenue generating cord blood banking services and on establishing a sound presence in all major markets in the Asian region.
Kalbe Farma is the largest publicly-listed pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia, with a market capitalisation of approximately US$1.5 billion and US$600 million in revenue in 2005. Kalbe Farma has over 12,000 employees, which includes a sales force of 6,000 covering 80% of the Indonesian consumer health market. Further, it is the dominant supplier to the Indonesian prescription pharmaceutical market.
CordLife Indonesia has been in operation since December 2003. The cord blood units have been couriered to Singapore, for processing and storage at the company's AABB-accredited facility. The volume of business in Indonesia has grown to the extent that the operations now require a processing and storage facility in the country. The investment by Kalbe Farma will enable CordLife Indonesia to proceed with these plans. The new facility is expected to be fully operational by early 2007, and the company intends to seek AABB accreditation for this facility.
Kalbe Farma will make a significant contribution towards growing the business through its vast hospital sales force of 6,000 people, and extensive hospital and birthing centre network. CordLife Indonesia will launch an expanded marketing and sales program for the cord blood banking business later this year.
"We have been looking for some time for a suitable partner towards building a business around tissue banking and cell therapy solutions in Indonesia", said Boenjamin Setiawan, President Commissioner, Kalbe Farma. "CordLife has been operating in Indonesia for some time, with a good team of people and a strong reputation. The CyGenics group has the best expertise in this region in terms of operational experience in many markets, quality standards, and so on. I believe together we will be able to do great things and lift CordLife Indonesia to the next level of growth."
"With its close proximity to Singapore and a projected five million births in 2006 alone, Indonesia has always been a key market for future expansion for our CordLife operations," said Steven Fang, Group CEO, CyGenics. "We are pleased to welcome Kalbe Farma as a valuable partner, and we look forward to being able to reaching a great many more people with our cord blood banking service."
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Kalbe In-house Show & Pharma Forum 2006
Cheap Revolution influences all of daily life’s aspects. The pharmaceutical industry is no longer immune to this issue, as said by Johannes Setijono, the President Director of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk when opening Kalbe In-house Show & Pharma Forum 2006, Thursday 21 September 2006 at Cikarang, Bekasi Jawa Barat.
Cheap Revolution
According to Indonesia Innovator of the Year 2006 from CNBC Asia Pacific, Cheap Revolution is a massive event that occurred on account of globalization that overwhelms the world. Costumers are smarter in spending their money as well as increasing their demands for quality and comfort. As days passed the price for goods and services decline.
Some of the causes are: technology revolutions, real time media, the increase of productivity, price information from the internet, mass production, etc. Besides that, the pharmaceutical company in particular, is being demanded to reach a certain quality standard namely, cGMP, ISO 9001, ISO4001, OHSAS 18001 & Total Quality Management.
To achieve the above standards with high quality products and efficient cost, there is a way called Outsourcing.
Outsourcing system is commonly used by overseas companies – this benefits both parties. For the outsourcing contributor, this may decrease investments when there are new and high tech products in line. For the outsourcing recipients, the possessed capacity may be used to the maximum.
With outsourcing, the company may become tougher in facing cheap revolution. Slowly but surely, the products manufactured will become relatively cheaper, except the products that are still in patent period, said Johannes.
Can the "Local" manufactures survive without partnership?
The above question becomes the base of Santoso Oen’s explanation regarding the challenges in the world of pharmaceutical producer these days. As an example, the Director of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk quoted news regarding Vietnam’s pharmaceutical industry. Around 100 local pharmaceutical companies (out of 200) are at risk of being closed down. Some of the reasons are the increasing production costs and the demands from Vietnam’s National Agency of Drug and Food Control for higher quality. Such things may become an idea for the companies in Indonesia, both big and small to start thinking about production pattern that may depress the production and development costs, to hold back investment process cost and decrease quality management cost.
Besides taking up explanations from pharmaceutical outsourcing experts, participants can also look at the opened booths. Various booths that depicts the production process, quality control, supply chain management, packing, etc. were shown at Kalbe Farma office in Cikarang, Bekasi Jawa Barat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)