Ten pharmaceutical groups dominate market

JAKARTA (JP): Ten large groups continue to dominate the domestic pharmaceutical market, contributing almost half of the country's total sales of Rp 1.5 trillion (US$693 million) last year, a survey says.

However, the Indonesian Business Data Center (IBDC) said yesterday that its recent survey indicated a slight reduction in the market share held by the groups during the last decade.

The market share held by the groups declined from 52.6 percent in 1983 to 47.1 percent in 1987 before increasing back to 49.4 percent in 1993.

The ten groups are Kalbe Farma, Konimex, Tempo, Parit Padang, Tunggal, Kimia Farma, Salim, Gemala, Pradja Farma and Pharos.

According to IBDC, around 259 producers are competing to grab substantial shares in the domestic pharmaceutical market, which grows by an average of about 17 percent to 20 percent annually.

The largest group, Kalbe Farma, recorded total sales of Rp 195.8 billion last year, or 12.7 percent of the pharmaceuticals market. They were followed by Konimex and Tempo, which held market shares of 6.18 percent and 5.31 percent respectively.

Each of the seven other groups held market shares between 1.69 percent and 5.07 percent.

The center also said that, during the last five years, the pharmaceutical industry saw 15 cases of mergers and acquisitions, including the merger of PT Bristol Myers Indonesia and PT Squibb Indonesia in 1990.

In 1991, Inchape Bhd. of Malaysia took over the shares of BP International in PT Tensia Manufacturing Indonesia. Shailendra Arya Group (Tunggal Group) took over 51 percent of Beecham Group Plc.'s shares in PT International Cosmetic. PT Kalbe Farma took over PT Carlo Erba Farmitalia earlier this year.

Out of the country's 259 pharmaceutical plants, 220 or 86.6 percent are owned by private domestic companies, 31 or 12.2 percent by foreign joint ventures, three or 1.2 percent by state- owned companies and two companies -- PT Sandoz Biochemie and PT Phapros Indonesia -- are affiliated to state-owned companies.

The center also said that private domestic companies dominated the marketing of 10 out of the 12 kinds of pharmaceutical products in 1993. (05)