(tribunnews.com)

Listed state-controlled pharmaceutical giant PT Kimia Farma plans to build an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant at a cost of Rp 110 billion next year to better meet raw materials demands and lessen the need to import.

Kimia Farma president director Rusdi Rusman said on Friday that the plant would produce 6 raw materials and 8 high functional chemicals needed in the pharmaceutical industry. The firm has welcomed a joint venture with a foreign investor to build the 12-hectare plant for which phase one will cost Rp 110 billion.

Rusdi said the feasibility of the project is still being assessed by the Assessment and Application of Technology Agency (BPPT).

If the feasibility study is completed this year, he estimated that the joint venture contract would be signed early next year.

"We will build the first phase next year and [the project] will be completed with 1.5 years. This will meet 100 percent of Kimia Farma's raw-material needs," he said on the sidelines of the Investor Summit and Capital Market Expo 2015 in Jakarta.

Rusdi declined to disclose the firm's potential partner.

A new plant will help the industry as it will lower imports. Indonesia's pharmaceutical industry currently relies on imports for 95 percent of raw materials.

Kima Farma is also at the commissioning phase for another development '€“ a medicinal salts plant in Jombang, East Java, which will cost Rp 28.8 billion.

The plant, capable of producing 2,000 tons of pharmaceutical salts per year, will be operated as soon as Kimia Farma acquires authorization from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).

"Hopefully we can start operations in December," he said.

The company will also build phase II of the medicinal salts plant, with a capacity of up to 4,000 tons of salt per year. The two plants will help to meet the national pharmaceutical salts demand of 6,000 tons per year.

Medicinal salts are used for various purposes such as the production of intravenous fluids, sports drinks and beauty products.

Kimia Farma recorded a net profit of Rp 166.8 billion in quarter three, representing growth of 14.88 percent from Rp 145.1 billion net profit in the same period last year. The company's revenue also rose 12.88 percent, to Rp 3.47 trillion, in the third quarter of this year. (rin)(+)

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