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AKARTA: State-owned publicly listed pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma (KAEF) and PT Tigaka Distrindo Perkasa, a private national company, signed a joint venture agreement with Tianjin Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. of China on Monday to set up an injection corticosteroid plant in Cikarang, West Java.

The plant is expected to absorb US$27.7 million worth of investments and is scheduled to begin operations in 2014 with an initial output of 30 million ampoules and 10 million vials of corticosteroid, an anti-inflammation medicine. The plant will have a maximum production capacity of 300 million doses a year.

The joint venture company, which is 49 percent owned by Kimia Farma, 5 percent by Tigaka and the remaining 46 percent by the Chinese company plans to finance 60 percent of its investment with bank loans and the other 40 percent with equity.