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Executive Column: Roche Indonesia says pandemic limelighted diagnostics
The pandemic has caused disruption as well as prompted innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, with Roche Diagnostics Indonesia waiting for the government to green-light its at-home COVID-19 test kits for sales and distribution.
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Ahmed Hassan, director and country manager at Roche Diagnostics Indonesia (Courtesy of Roche Indonesia/-)
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has put the medical equipment industry in the spotlight as demand for fast, cheap and efficient testing rises across the globe. Pharmaceutical companies must keep up with the emergence of new coronavirus variants to produce effective test kits while facing supply chain bottlenecks, material shortages and other challenges.
The Jakarta Post’s Eisya A. Eloksari interviewed Roche Diagnostics Indonesia director and country manager Ahmed Hassan on Jan. 28 to learn about the company’s business during the pandemic as well as its at-home test kits.
Question: How has Roche Indonesia’s business fared during the pandemic?
Answer: In the second quarter of 2020, our business did not decline a lot, because companies and doctors were stocking up on medical equipment to prepare for the pandemic. But after that, there was a sharp demand decline in our blood bank and medical checkup equipment divisions.
Last year, we noted around 20 million people using our COVID-19 test kits, so whatever losses we saw in the regular business, we were able to recover with the COVID-19 testing business.
What challenges did you encounter in your business over the past two years?
One was logistics, as flights were canceled, but thankfully the government, state-owned enterprises [SOEs] and private companies helped by offering charter flights, for example.
