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Insight: Securing a healthier future: The importance of Indonesia's plasma fractionation facility

The global health crisis brought on by COVID-19 tested healthcare systems worldwide, and Indonesia was no exception. As one of the world’s most populous nations, the nation faced immense challenges yet demonstrated resilience and adaptability in navigating the pandemic.

Stefanus Hadiwidjaja, CIO of the Indonesia Investment Authority - Seung-Joo Kim, CEO of SK Plasma (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, December 27, 2024

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Insight: Securing a healthier future: The importance of Indonesia's plasma fractionation facility

T

he global health crisis brought on by COVID-19 tested healthcare systems worldwide, and Indonesia was no exception. As one of the world’s most populous nations, the nation faced immense challenges yet demonstrated resilience and adaptability in navigating the pandemic. These efforts reflected the strength of its people and the determination of its healthcare sector to overcome one of the most difficult periods in modern history.

At the same time, this experience also exposed areas for improvement, particularly in ensuring access to critical medical supplies, including plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs). These treatments are not only vital for managing severe conditions like autoimmune disorders and hemophilia but are also essential for saving lives, ensuring that patients receive the critical care they need when they need it most. 

Plasma, the largest component of human blood, has no artificial substitute, making it indispensable. During the pandemic, Indonesia utilized convalescent plasma therapy, a treatment using antibody-rich plasma from recovered patients to help others fight severe infections, as a critical tool. While effective in specific cases, this approach also revealed significant limitations, as it was often scarce, expensive and challenging to obtain during urgent times.

Today, plasma-based treatments have evolved to primarily rely on plasma collected from healthy donors, significantly broadening their application to address various critical medical needs. Despite this progress, the broader potential for plasma in health care remains largely untapped in Indonesia, underscoring the importance of building a more self-reliant healthcare system that reduces dependency on external supply chains and ensures timely access to life-saving treatments.

Despite its importance, plasma remains underutilized in Indonesia, with an estimated 70 to 90 percent of collected plasma being discarded and only the remaining portion used for transfusions. Coupled with a 100 percent reliance on imported PDMPs, these inefficiencies expose vulnerabilities in the country’s healthcare system, making it susceptible to global supply chain disruptions and limiting access to life-saving treatments.

As Indonesia aspires to achieve healthcare self-sufficiency, plasma fractionation, separating plasma into vital proteins like albumin and immunoglobulin—represents a crucial piece of the puzzle. Albumin is essential for regulating blood volume and is used in liver disease treatment and surgical procedures, while immunoglobulins play a critical role in treating immune deficiencies and infectious diseases. Yet, according to the Marketing Research Bureau, Indonesia’s consumption of these products lags significantly behind its regional peers. 

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This gap is where Indonesia’s first plasma fractionation facility comes into play. Recently announced by the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) and SK Plasma, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates with a global presence, a leader in the fields of biologics and pharmaceutical therapies, through the signing of investment agreements to build Indonesia's first plasma fractionation facility set to be the largest in Southeast Asia, this facility is already under construction in Karawang, West Java, with an annual processing capacity of 600,000 liters of plasma. By 2026, it aims to transform up to 200,000 l of Indonesian plasma annually, plasma that would otherwise go unused, into high-quality medicines. These treatments will not only save lives but also come at a more stable and affordable price due to local manufacturing.

The government has been pivotal in enabling this initiative and continues to encourage the resilience of domestic pharmaceutical products, as this initiative reflects the nation’s healthcare security agenda. It has been demonstrated through the mandate for the use of locally manufactured products in public healthcare institutions. Further reinforcing this commitment, the recent Health Ministerial Regulation No. 4/2023 on implementation of plasma fractionation, promotes the development of local plasma fractionation facilities and establishes stringent standards for quality and safety in plasma collection and utilization, ensuring alignment with international benchmarks. Such a regulatory framework is not only instrumental in promoting a viable biopharmaceutical sector but also ensures that domestically produced plasma products are given priority in our national healthcare system, reflecting a strategic approach to building a more self-reliant healthcare infrastructure.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that reliance on foreign supplies for life-saving treatments can pose a risk for Indonesia’s 280 million people. Through this partnership, we are not only building the capacity to produce plasma-based medicines domestically but also strengthening our healthcare system’s resilience to respond to future health crises. I also encourage other companies to take similar initiatives, contributing to a more self-reliant and robust healthcare system for Indonesia,” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin recently.

Furthermore, this joint initiative is also an opportunity to raise much-needed awareness of plasma-derived medicines among healthcare providers and the public. Access to these life-saving treatments is not just about building facilities, it is about ensuring people have the knowledge and resources to make them available where and when they are needed most. With healthcare demands rapidly growing in the region, Indonesia’s plasma fractionation facility is a vital step toward creating a healthier future. It is a testament to what can be achieved when governments, private investors and other stakeholders come together with a shared goal. At its heart, this initiative is about resilience, self-reliance and ensuring every Indonesian has access to affordable, high-quality medical care.

Indonesia’s progress in health care is not just about infrastructure; it is about building a system that can adapt, innovate and thrive. By enabling import substitutions for PDMPs, the country is taking important steps toward stabilizing its healthcare system and ensuring consistent access to essential medicines. This effort also opens doors for the transfer of valuable knowledge and technology, equipping local professionals with the skills to sustain and advance Indonesia’s healthcare capabilities for generations to come.

The ideas expressed here do not represent The Jakarta Post's views and policies.

 

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