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State-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma (KAEF) is looking to construct a new plant in 2015 that will produce certain drug ingredients to reduce the industry'€™s dependence on imports.

The new plant will be located within the company'€™s existing manufacturing complex in Watudakon, Jombang, East Java, and will be equipped with facilities to produce atorvastatin, amlodipine, azithromycin and simvastatin, according to Kimia president director Rusdi Rosman.

'€œNo company produces them domestically at the moment. So we import all four of them from various countries,'€ he said in a recent telephone interview.

Atorvastatin is known as a ingredient to treat high cholesterol and to reduce the risk of various heart complications, while amlodipine is used to treat high blood pressure.

Meanwhile, azithromycin is useful for treating bacterial infections and simvastatin is popular for lowering cholesterol.

Kimia Farma will collaborate with Japanese and South Korean firms to produce the raw materials. '€œThe production of one raw material will be assisted by a Japanese firm, while the other three will be assisted by the South Korean firm,'€ Rusdi said.

In the initial stage, he added, the raw materials would be used to meet Kimia'€™s own needs. '€œAny surplus will then be marketed to other pharmacies,'€ Rusdi said.

Kimia corporate secretary Farida Astuti said the company was conducting a feasibility study on the new plant and expected to complete it by year-end at the latest.

No complete calculation of the plant'€™s capacity or construction costs was immediately available.

The new plant will be the second factory operated by Kimia to produce raw materials. The publicly listed company announced in April that it had signed a partnership agreement with state salt producer PT Garam to manufacture pharmaceutical salt.

Similar to atorvastatin, amlodipine, azithromycin and simvastatin, pharmaceutical salt is currently unavailable domestically and must be imported.

The salt factory, worth Rp 28 billion (US$2.34 million), will also be located in Watudakon and will have an initial production capacity of 3,000 tons per year. The capacity may be upgraded to 6,000 tons per year in the next two years.

It expects to make Rp 18 billion from the initial sales of the 3,000 tons of pharmaceutical salt, which can fetch a price of Rp 6,000 per kilogram.

'€œThe groundbreaking ceremony of the pharmaceutical salt plant will take place in August. Hopefully we will be able to begin production in the first quarter of 2015,'€ Farida said.

Funds to construct the salt factory will come from the Rp 939.52 billion in capital expenditure budget that has been allocated for Kimia'€™s expansion projects in 2014.

According to Rusdi, Kimia will be able to reduce its imports of raw materials significantly once the plants are built. Currently, 95 percent of its total raw materials are imported.

In terms of business throughout the year, Kimia is eyeing a total of Rp 5.2 trillion in revenue, up 19.6 percent from a year ago. At its bottom line, it aims to reach 9.1 percent growth, to Rp 234 billion.

Meanwhile, from January to March, Kimia managed to book Rp 867.03 billion in revenue and Rp 23.37 billion in net profits. Its financial reports show that the company had Rp 2.28 trillion in total assets as of March.

Kimia'€™s shares ended at Rp 990 apiece on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Monday, 1 percent higher than last Friday.