JAKARTA -- The Indonesian state-owned pharmaceutical company, Bio Farma, revealed the added value of importing Sinovac vaccine raw materials rather than buying finished-products. Bio Farma said that many benefits would be achieved if the import of Sinovac vaccine raw materials was carried out.

President Director of PT Bio Farma Honesti Basyir said the importation of raw materials from Sinovac was more efficient in terms of price than the importation of finished vaccines from the Chinese producer. This was conveyed by Honesti during a hearing (RDP) with DPR Commission VI at the DPR Building, Jakarta, Monday (29/3).

Honesti explained that the import price of the vaccine is 17 US dollars per dose. Bio Farma negotiated and received hundreds of thousands of free vaccines. Thus, the unit price per vaccine dose can be reduced to 13.3 US dollars.

"When importing raw materials, the price is 10.9 US dollars, so there is a difference of almost 3 US dollars per dose," said Honesti.

Honesti assessed that the importation of raw materials is more profitable for Indonesia because it creates efficiency factors and technology transfer. Honesti said that the price includes packaging and transportation.

Upon arrival in Indonesia, Honesti said, Bio Farma sold vaccines or vaccine raw materials to the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) but was reluctant to disclose the margin from the initial price.

"Usually, the margin for each government assignment to BUMN ranges from five percent to ten percent," said Honesti.

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Indonesia has received about 4.1 million doses of vaccine in finished form. The details, 3 million doses from Sinovac Biotech, China, and the rest from AstraZeneca. In addition to the finished form, Sinovac has also sent 35 million doses in bulk.

The total bulk vaccine to be received from Sinovac is 140 million doses, which will be received gradually until July 2021.

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