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tate pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma plans to invest Rp 500 billion to construct a pharmaceutical plant to produce derivative products from blood plasma including Albumin and Factor IX.

Bio Farma public relations chief Tedy Herawan on Thursday said the plant would be the first of its kind in Indonesia and would aim to supply growing domestic demand, which mostly sees imports from the Netherlands.

“Albumin, for example, is very important for thalassemia patients. But these patient must pay Rp 2 million [US$222] per package. Producing albumin domestically will help these consumers with lower prices,” Teddy said.

Albumin is commonly administered for a medical conditions where levels of albumin in blood serum are abnormally low, as well as in therapeutic plasma exchanges and cardiothoracic surgery.

Factor IX is a protein substance in blood plasma that is essential to the blood-clotting process. A deficiency of this factor is the cause of Christmas disease.

Teddy said Bio Farma, which produces vaccines and other biological products, would work with the Indonesia Red Cross (PMI) for the supply of blood, for the plant.

Bio Farma director Iskandar said a domestic production of blood plasma derivatives would require regulatory support from the government, particularly on the supply of blood.

“It is difficult to collect blood plasma from all over Indonesia. The industry involvement in blood plasma processing must be managed with a government regulation,” Iskandar said.

Iskandar said Bio Farma had learned how to produce blood plasma derivative products from South Korean and Australian pharmaceutical companies.

It had also received guidelines from World Health Organization (WHO) on the blood plasma plant, he said.

“We will give guidelines to the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency [BPOM] and the Health Ministry to help them draft supporting regulations,” Iskandar said.

At present Bio Farma produces seven types of vaccines. About 40 percent of Bio Farma products are sold to the domestic market while the remainder are sold directly to foreign countries including Aljazair, Mali, Nigeria and several Asian countries, or via the WHO.

Last year Bio Farma booked Rp 1.1 trillion in revenue, netting Rp 200 billion in profits. The company is targeting to gain Rp 1.2 trillion in revenue this year.