Pharmaceutical Industry: B. Braun Indonesia Opens Factory
B. Braun Indonesia, the local unit of the German medical and pharmaceutical device company, held the opening ceremony for its factory on Thursday (27/07). This new factory, expected to be fully operational in 2018, is the company's first infusion solutions factory in Indonesia. The move implies that B. Braun Indonesia expanded its business activities from merely being a distributor to becoming both distributor and manufacturer of infusion and injectable medicines in Indonesia.
B. Braun Indonesia set aside IDR 900 billion (approx. USD $68 million) for the development of the new factory that is built on a 19-hectares plot of land in Karawang (West Java). In the first phase of operations the factory only has one production line with an annual production capacity of 15 million bottle units. In the second phase production capacity will be expanded to 48 million units.
The plant will produce the following healthcare products: Ecosol Ringer Lactate IV Inf 500 ml, Sterofundin ISO IV Inf 500 ml, Ecosol Sodium Chloride 0.9 Inf 500 ml, Glucose 5 percent 500 ml, and Ecosol Glucose 10 percent IV inf 500 ml. In the first stage the plant will require about 200 workers.
Anna Maria Braun, President of B. Braun Asia Pacific, said the company has been a distributor in Indonesia for almost 40 years but now finally decided to build its own factory. B. Braun was motivated to take this step as it detects plenty of demand for the medical products on the Indonesian market. Not only does Indonesia have a huge population (around 260 million people) but it also shows growing demand for healthcare products and services, especially after the Indonesian government launched its universal healthcare program several years ago.
B. Braun Indonesia took its time to develop the plant. The company already purchased the land for the factory in 2009, while the first stone was only laid in 2013. Stephan Soyka, Managing Director B. Braun Indonesia, said slow progress was actually the result of the company's perfectionism as it wanted to prepare everything carefully.
Indonesian Health Minister Nila Moeloek is content to see the development of B. Braun Indonesia's factory as it will reduce Indonesia's reliance on imports from abroad for the supply of infusion bags. Currently, Indonesia needs about 150 million of these bags per year but only half can be supplied by domestic producers.
Indonesia's pharmaceutical industry is expected to have grown 8 percent in the second quarter of 2017 supported by the government universal healthcare scheme.
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