Little-known Bio Farma fighting disease globally
Bio Farma was little known to the public until it recently gained international press attention following a decision by Nigeria to buy polio vaccine from the firm.
The Bandung-based firm, which was established as the Pasteur Institute by the Dutch colonial government in 1890, is going to celebrate its 114th anniversary on Aug. 6.
While keeping a low profile, the state-owned firm has been apparently making handsome money. Its sales stood at Rp 62.43 billion in 1995. Five years later, the sales rose six-fold to Rp 362.87 billion and further grew to Rp 509 billion in 2003.
Zakki P. Hakim of The Jakarta Post spoke with Bio Farma president Marzuki Abdullah on its deal with Nigeria and its business outlook.
The following is an excerpt of the interview:
Question: Why did the Nigerian government decide to procure polio vaccine from Bio Farma? Answer: Last year, one of Nigeria's Muslim states, Kano, halted its vaccination program after the local authorities alleged the vaccine had been contaminated with hormones that could make girls infertile. They suspended the use of oral polio vaccine (OPV) and formed several expert committees to do their own tests and to look for a new source of safe drugs. Eventually, they came to Indonesia, which is one of the five countries certified by the UN authorities as a producer of safe vaccines.
What brought them to Indonesia?
Nigeria is a Muslim country. So apparently they were interested to see Indonesia as the most populous Muslim country in the world, which is also producing polio vaccine. In April, a delegation of 26 scientists, Muslim clerics and academics visited our site in Bandung. They said that they were looking for vaccines that were not contaminated with substances that could make girls sterile.
Did you use any special approach to convince them? We used a socio-political approach by emphasizing that as Muslims we would not harm our fellow Muslims. They saw us using similar greetings and prayers as theirs. At one meeting with the delegation, a Nigerian TV recorded us reciting Al-Fathihah, the first verse in the Al-Qur'an, before we started our discussion. Eventually, they were convinced and said that they were satisfied to find a country where the majority of people were Muslims that produces polio vaccine. One month later, we received OPV orders from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) for Nigeria. The initial order was 2.865 million vials of OPV worth US$2.36 million. By June, we had shipped 1.915 million vials.
Do you see such a sentiment in other countries that you might use as an opportunity? I have heard that some Muslim states in India have started to show some resistance in using vaccines from non-Muslim countries. Let's see what will happen there.
What is your biggest market? India is our biggest market. However, we do not sell our finished products there, but sell raw materials. The Indians produce their own vaccine but use our raw materials. We've been selling between 550 million to 580 million doses worth up to $13 million annually since 2000. Every year, India absorbs 800 million doses of raw materials, including from Italy and Thailand.
(The company, which exports polio, measles, DPT, BCG, and TT vaccines, is the only vaccine and sera manufacturer in Indonesia. Bio Farma started its export drive in 1997, boosted by its recognition as a WHO-certified supplier for polio and measles vaccine in 1997 and DPT, BCG and TT vaccine in 2000.
With strong support from Unicef, Bio Farma's products have entered many countries such as Bhutan, the Philippines, North Korea, Malawi, Mali, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Thailand, Uganda, and Yemen)
What is your immediate challenge? The UN has targeted global polio eradication by 2008. By then, there would be far less demand for OPVs, if not zero demand. Therefore, we have started to manufacture injectable inactivated polio vaccines (IPV), which are now common in developed countries. OPVs have contributed 30 percent to 35 percent of our total sales. Thus, the success of polio eradication, ironically, will deal a big blow to us. We will anticipate it by introducing our IPVs to our traditional market.
What has Bio Farma prepared for the future? First, we are developing a combo vaccine, a combination of such vaccines as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT) and hepatitis B in one injection. One shot contains four vaccines. We have been conducting research for two years now, and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has approved the product. We are now expecting approval from the WHO next year before we can supply the product to the global market. And next year, we are looking forward to add haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) vaccines to our combination of DPT and hepatitis B vaccine. The result is five vaccines in one shot. Our second best product is hepatitis B vaccine, which accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of our sales. An international non- governmental organization, Global Alliance of Vaccines Initiatives (GAVI), has been assisting the Indonesian government to develop the vaccines. The government then ordered Bio Farma to produce the vaccines. GAVI partners with WHO, Unicef, the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program. We are also preparing "uniject" vaccines for hepatitis B. The innovative uniject uses a similar concept to but higher technology than the auto-destruct syringes. With uniject, we put the vaccines in prefillable needles, to prevent reuse, thus the risk of disease transmission, such as HIV or other fatal diseases is reduced. The first automated uniject filling and sealing line in the world was launched in Biofarma in 2000.
Do you have any plan to go public? We have no plan to go public so far. The government sees Bio Farma as working for national interests. As the government finances procurement from the state budget, it also has a say in determining the price of our products. If we go public, the government can no longer determine the price. Even the international bodies have a role in pricing, considering that the products are social commodities. Another reason not to go public is that we might lose international support for research and transfer of technology, as a public company might perceived as self-sufficient. We have been supported by grants and transfer of technology from the Netherlands and Japan, among other countries.