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Bos Bio Farma & Strategi Reformasi BUMN Farmasi Era Danantara

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Overview

CNB Indonesia (BUMN Update 2026) interviewed Bio Farma’s President Director, Syadq Akasyah, about Bio Farma’s strategy and transformation within Indonesia’s state-owned pharmaceutical industry (“BUMN farmasi”)—especially under Danantara—to make the company more efficient, innovative, and agile, and better able to serve national healthcare needs.

Bio Farma’s transformation approach

  • Bio Farma became part of a pharmaceutical holding structure in 2020. However, transformation efforts were initially constrained by the COVID-19 period, when the company’s main focus was developing and producing a COVID vaccine.
  • Transformation continued through 2021–2022. Starting around 2023, the focus shifted toward organizing the holding function, including:
    • the “parenting” function (holding-level guidance/oversight)
    • the organizational structure and how businesses are governed and scaled
  • Under the Danantara-era transformation scheme, Bio Farma applies a staged plan:
    1. Business fundamentals first
    2. Financial restructuring second

Business reorientation: make operations more scalable and efficient

Bio Farma acknowledges it faces both business transformation needs and financial difficulties, emphasizing that improvements in fundamentals are required before transformation can deliver results.

Two major business reorientation programs were highlighted:

  1. Make business scale more effective/efficient, including temporarily pruning inefficient or low-volume products

    • Example: similar pruning actions at Kimia Farma for products that were underperforming or remained on small scale.

  2. Improve business models for distribution and retail operations

    • Distribution is noted under Kimia Farma Trading/Distribution
    • Pharmacy improvement efforts are noted via Kimia Farma Pharmacy

Financial restructuring at the holding level

The holding supports financial turnaround efforts through:

  • creditor restructuring (approaching creditors, including interest and terms adjustments)
  • capital injection
  • shareholder loans
  • financing mechanisms such as:
    • supply chain financing
    • project financing

The goal is to restore liquidity and ensure working capital can circulate effectively (the interview used a metaphor that “blood starts flowing again”).

Future planning and governance

Bio Farma also stresses holding-level responsibilities beyond business and finance restructuring:

  • short-term annual planning
  • medium-term planning (mentioned as RJPM)
  • good governance standardization (not all governance issues are fully resolved yet)

Diversifying vaccine growth beyond COVID

Although Bio Farma is known for vaccine production, the strategy is to avoid dependence on a single product by expanding its pipeline and strengthening domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Planned / ongoing products discussed

  • Typhoid vaccine

    • launched recently
    • development is described as a long process (minimum around 7 years)
    • Bio Farma collaborates with global partners (example: Korea for seed material), then performs:
      • development
      • platform building
      • preclinical testing
      • clinical trials
      • stability testing

  • Rotavirus

    • Bio Farma is currently importing rotavirus product
    • Bio Farma plans to submit permits to BPOM
    • target for gradual domestic production starting in 2027

  • Potential expansion areas

    • further collaboration on a cancer vaccine program (mentioned collaboration with MSD), including:
      • formulation development
      • eventual technology transfer
    • hopes for adult hepatitis B development

Collaboration and research model

To accelerate and sustain R&D, Bio Farma works with:

  • research companies
  • universities
  • global partners that already have relevant products/technology

Export strategy: domestic first, then international scale

The primary priority is national health security because Bio Farma is a state-owned enterprise.

  • Export potential

    • Bio Farma’s vaccines are said to be used in more than 150 countries
    • exports include procurement through UNICEF (example: polio vaccine)

  • Longer-term plans

    • technology transfer
      • not only receiving/learning technology, but also transferring it to other countries
      • especially regional partners in Africa to strengthen health resilience there

Presenters / contributors

  • Syadq Akasyah (President Director, Bio Farma)
  • Mercy (interviewer; referenced as “Ms. Mercy” in the program context)
  • CNB Indonesia (program context; no additional individual hosts named in the provided subtitles)

Original video