Pharmaniaga lays plans for API plant in "promising" Indonesia
According to reports in the local media Pharmaniaga is in talks with an unnamed Indonesian firm about buying a generic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production plant in an as yet undisclosed location and has set aside $10m (€7.6m).
Pharmaniaga managing director, Dato Farshila Emran confirmed the plan, telling in-PharmaTechnologist the purchase would boost his firm's presence in Indonesia, which he said is a potentially very lucrative market.
“Indonesia is the only country among the pharmerging countries that has registered a double digit growth in the pharmaceutical sectors," said Emran, adding that “Since 2009 and up to 2011, Indonesia has registered an average of 14 per cent growth in the pharmaceutical sector.”
However, while this rate of growth does present an opportunity, there is also risk according to Emran who stressed that a local manufacturing presence is a must for any firm that wants to claim a share of the market.
“Domestically produced drugs dominate Indonesia’s pharmaceutical market, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of total pharmaceutical sales so there is a stiff competition in Indonesian market.”
Import rules
News of Pharmaniaga’s plan also follows efforts by the Indonesian Government to make it more difficult to import drugs.
At present it is very difficult for non-Indonesian pharmaceutical manufacturers to import generic drugs that are already produced in the country unless they also have a local facility.
Emran acknowledged this as a factor in Pharmaniaga’s acquisition plan and said that rather than seeing the import rules as a potential hurdle the firm saw them as an opportunity to provide lower cost products.
“With the manufacturing facility, Pharmaniaga will be able to penetrate its own product manufactured in Indonesia,” he said, reiterating that “due to the sheer size of the population, we see that Indonesia as a promising market.”
