Business Opportunities of COVID-19 Drugs and Vaccines in Indonesia
iSB Jakarta (i3L School of Business)
By Azalia imani B.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected both the Indonesian social and economic sectors. According to our speakers, the first impact that needs to be highlighted is the decrease in domestic purchasing power. The pandemic also caused uncertainties as people do not know when the pandemic ends. Investments have also decreased in number which causes businesses to shut down. The weakening of the economy has furthermore caused the values of commodities to plummet. As a result, the government has since executed mitigation plans such as prompt vaccinations, revitalization of the national economy, BLT, and the provision of financial aids to UKM/UMKM.
Despite the significant impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has caused on the world’s economy, the demands for drugs have skyrocketed. Sie Djohan, a member of Kalbe Farma’s directorial board, explained how Kalbe Farma has been constantly innovating in ways to fight COVID-19, one of those innovations is the Diagnostic Innovation initiative which encompasses the different methods to easily detect COVID-19 in patients. Thanks to this initiative, we can now get fast PCR results: it used to take up to 3 days to get PCR results back, now it only takes 8 hours.
Kalbe Farma has also invented other state-of-the-art innovations such as a wearable early detection device that allows a quick COVID-19 detection by looking at patients’ physical conditions. People can now detect early COVID-19 symptoms so that they can get immediate treatments.
Nationally, a plethora of innovations has been developed to counter COVID-19 as numerous research centers have been collaborating closely with overseas pharmaceutical companies in producing vaccines.
Author: Azalia imani B.
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