
JAKARTA -- Indonesia's largest pharmaceutical company, Kalbe Farma, inaugurated its first biological drug factory on Tuesday, as it aims to produce higher-margin prescription drugs amid heated competition in the country's pharmaceutical industry.
The factory, run by subsidiary Kalbio Global Medika, sits across an 11,000-square-meter site in an industrial zone in Cikarang, east of Jakarta. Kalbe invested 500 billion rupiah ($35 million) to construct the factory. Another 200 billion rupiah has been set aside to support research and development, and to transfer technology from Chinese and South Korean partners to support the operation, Kalbe said in a press statement.