Signs Cooperation With ProFactor Pharma UK, Bio Farma Gets Exclusive Sales Rights For Hemophilia Recombinant Factor VIII Drugs

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Holding BUMN Pharmaceuticals, PT Bio Farma (Persero) officially cooperates with a British drug manufacturer, Profactor Pharma. In this collaboration, Bio Farma has the exclusive right to co-develop the blood product Recombinant Factor VIII (ProFactor and Bio Farma) globally.

The collaboration between Bio Farma and Profactor Pharma was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding at the Indonesian Embassy in London, England, on Friday, September 30, 2022. The signing was also witnessed directly by the Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir.

President Director of Bio Farma Honesti Basyir emphasized that collaboration with ProFactor Pharma will further maximize Bio Farma's innovation and performance, especially related to its vision and mission to produce quality life sciences products of international standard and affordable for people in various parts of the world.

"The collaboration between Bio Farma and Profactor Pharma is in the form of co-development or joint development and transfer of Recombinant Factor VIII technology developed by ProFactor Pharma experts with more than 25 years of experience, in the biological product process starting from the upstream process to the processing process. downstream," Honesti said in an official statement, Wednesday, October 5.

Honesti explained that in this collaboration, Bio Farma obtained the milestone of production license and exclusive sales of Recombinant Factor VIII products. Bio Farma will act as the exclusive manufacturer for the global supply of the product.

Furthermore, he said exclusive sales and marketing will be carried out in ASEAN 6 territories, namely in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam and India. For Indonesia itself, currently it is still 100 percent using imported products.

Meanwhile, outside the territory, sales and marketing will be carried out by Partner Companies appointed by ProFactor Pharma.

"This will certainly be very beneficial nationally and globally," said Honesti.

Meanwhile, Director of Profactor, David Brown, said that the collaboration between Bio Farma and ProFactor will improve services to the public, especially hemophilia patients, 75 percent of whom are diagnosed with not receiving treatment due to the high price of the product.

"This recombinant technology makes the process of making blood products (Recombinant Factor VIII) faster and at an affordable price," said David.

To note, hemophilia is the most common hereditary blood clotting disorder in the world today. There are 2 types of hemophilia, namely hemophilia A and hemophilia B. Hemophilia A is caused by mutations in the factor VIII gene and causes factor VIII deficiency.

The incidence of hemophilia A is 1:5,000–10,000 (globally) of male births. As many as 80 percent of all cases are hemophilia A, while the rest are hemophilia B (factor IX deficiency).

Previously, SOE Minister Erick Thohir said this collaboration was a form of the government's efforts to create the resilience of the national health service system through cooperation in the transfer of innovation technology.

Bio Farma is the largest pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia that is actively developing vaccines and other life sciences products. With a production capacity of up to 3.5 billion doses and capable of producing 14 types of vaccine antigens for Indonesian and global needs.

"The government through SOEs is strengthening the national health resilience system to improve the quality of services for the community," Erick wrote on his official Instagram account @erickthohir, Tuesday, October 4.