Surabaya, March 2,2023 - PT Kalbe Farma Tbk or Kalbe,through its subsidiary PT Bintang Toedjoe, has inaugurated a pilot plant for a tissue culture laboratory called Kalbe Ubaya Hanbang-Bio (KUH), the first laboratory in Indonesia which develops ginseng and red ginger seeds through a plant tissue culture. It is an actual step towards commercialization for supporting the independence of national ingredients.


"We would like to appreciate this pilot plant, which was developed by Kalbe through PT Bintang Toedjoe and in collaborations with Ubaya and Hanbang-Bio from Korea, to support the independence of national ingredients, specific ginseng, and red gingers. This pilot plant would hopefully trigger the development of research for ginseng and red gingers and advance us further into commercialization," as stated by Agusdini Banun Saptaningsih, the Director of Pharmaceutical Production and Distribution for the Directorate General of Pharmacy and Health Equipments of the Indonesian Ministry of Health.


"The development of the pilot plant is intended as a follow-up research in a laboratory scale that has been conducted in the 2018-2021 period before entering the commercialization stage, which included the tissue culture development of red ginger seeds. The pilot plant is also equipped with the AHU system integrated with the Building Automation System (BAS), making its room condition monitoring to be well-controlled." As stated by Fanny Kurniati, the President Director of PT Bintang Toedjoe.


Fanny later explained that the pilot plant would accelerate the preparation into the commercialization scale. It was also intended to produce quality ginseng and red ginger seeds that could be utilized to fulfill the local ingredient needs and its potential to be marketed in the global market.


As Fanny stated, "The inauguration of the KUH Laboratory pilot plant is a commitment of Kalbe through PT Bintang Toedjoeto support the National Ingredient Independence Program, creating an integrated and sustainable process in the pharmacy industry, specifically in providing qualified and beneficial ingredients to the Indonesian people."


The KUH tissue culture laboratory is a collaboration betweenPT Bintang Toedjoe with the University of Surabaya (Ubaya) and Hanbang-Bio Co.Ltd (Kyung Hee University) of South Korea. Benny Lianto, Rector of Ubaya, stated that the improving production scale of Korean ginseng and Indonesian red gingers through the tissue culture method from the laboratory to pilot scale fulfilled a vision of the Technology Faculty of Ubaya, producing a product that could directly be beneficial to the public.


As Benny Lianto later added, "The shifting of the production scale will also prompt the students to create more fields of study and the produced ginseng from this new method can be consumed directly by the people. If a small bioreactor can produce about 3 kilograms of ginseng on average, the pilot plant can produce around 40 kilograms in one process, as it has a capacity of 200 liters or an equal of 14 small bioreactors. With the same harvest period of eight months, this will be more efficient in terms of time and manpower. Moreover, if one process is successful, then the rest will have the same successful result without any fluctuations."


The renovation of the KUH Laboratory pilot plant by Kalbe and its subsidiary PT Bintang Toedjoe includes the construction of the pilot plant facility, laboratory equipment, and other supporting systems. This is intended to support the pilot research process of ginseng production.


The pilot plant is also supported by Ubaya through the Kedaireka Kampus Merdeka Matching Fund Program with The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of Indonesia since 2021. The program supports the collaborations of universities and their partners or the Business and Industry World (DUDI) in various fields.


The Matching Fund, which was proposed in 2022, has the theme "the Independence of Health", with the scope of adoption or diffusion, downstream, commercialization of products, prototypes, technologies, and policies (including mini-plant, teaching factory, and teaching industry), to fulfill the requirements from partners. The program has received a 6 billion rupiah fund for the last two years, which is utilized for purchasing support equipment for the pilot plant and supporting the ginseng research roadmap.


Since Kalbe through PT Bintang Toedjoe has recently imported ginseng as the main ingredient of its product, Extra Joss, the laboratory has an important role in the company to decrease the dependency on imports by independently producing ginseng through in vitro production. With the tissue culture technology, the ginseng can be utilized to produce the same clones as the host plant (consistent), to significantly accelerate the plant maturation process and multiply the amount without using the seeds. Furthermore, this technique can produce ginseng that has a higher and standardized active ingredient known as ginsenoside.


Bintang Toedjoe also develops publically known, red ginger-based herbal products, such as Jahe Merah, Bejo Extra, Sujamer, Bejo Berkah, Komix Herbal, and Redgine. Therefore, the pilot plant facility also has an important role to produce red ginger seeds through a similar plant tissue culture technology, with maintained genetic stability and a clear plant parent origin. This will result in plants that are resilient to diseases, a uniformity of target metabolites, and a faster cultivation time of up to four months from the average cultivation time.



Kalbe at a Glance


Founded in 1966, PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (Kalbe) is one of the largest open pharmaceutical companies in Southeast Asia. The company has four main divisions that engage in a portfolio of reliable and diverse brands, such as the prescription medicine division, the health product division which handles free medicines, multivitamins, and ready-to-drink supplement beverages, and the distribution and logistics divisions.

Kalbe has also developed a digital service ecosystem for society, both in B2B with EMOS and in B2C with KlikDokter. EMOS is an order management application system that facilitates the distribution channels in commencing stock management or supply chain, while KlikDokter is a digital platform for health services, specifically telemedicine, which provides necessary health consultations and products for society.

Now, Kalbe has more than 40 subsidiaries and 15 production facilities with international standards, employing around 16.000 employees who are stationed in 76 branches all around Indonesia. Kalbe's shares have been recorded in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) since 1991 (IDX:KLBF).


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PT Kalbe Farma Tbk published this content on 02 March 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 06 March 2023 08:19:02 UTC.