Bio Farma fails to get WHO contract

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Drug manufacturer Bio Farma estimated it will suffer a 35 percent drop in revenue this year after its failure to qualify for a World Health Organization (WHO) tender to provide polio vaccine, a company director said on Tuesday.

Bio Farma production director Isa Mansyur said the company supplied around 35 million doses of polio vaccine every year to WHO and 800 million doses in bulk form (basic ingredients) per year to India.

Following the WHO decision not to award the tender for polio vaccine to Bio Farma, India was still considering whether to place an order.

"Our revenue target this year is between Rp 580 billion (US$61.05 million) and Rp 600 billion," he told journalists on Tuesday. He was speaking during a visit by Minister of Health Siti Fadillah Supari and the Vice President's wife, Mufidah Jusuf Kalla, to the company after they had launched a polio vaccination drive in Campaka subdistrict, Andir district, Bandung, on Tuesday.

Last year, the company booked 96 percent of its targeted revenue of Rp 587 billion.

Isa said the company would make major changes to its quality control regime so that their would be no repetition of its failure to win the WHO tender.

"There is a new quality control administration system that is required by WHO, and Bio Farma has not applied it yet. That's the reason why WHO can't include us in the tender. There's no problem with quality because the product's standards already meet the WHO guidelines," he said.

Despite the loss of the WHO contract, the company would still earn income by supplying vaccine for local use and exporting to countries like Nigeria, Malaysia and Mexico.

Head of the company's public relations section, Elvyn Fajrul Jaya Saputra, said a new WHO tender would be held in August 2005.

"We will have to race against time to meet the administrative and standard operating procedures requirements to qualify for the upcoming tender," she said.