Skip to content
Subscriber Only

Southeast Asia's Top Drugmaker Eyes Sri Lanka, Mideast Expansion

  • Company seeking partners for pharmaceuticals in Sri Lanka
  • Middle East offers potential for consumer goods: Vidjongtius
Tablets of multiple vitamin and minerals supplement are arranged for a photograph in Tokyo, Japan.

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

PT Kalbe Farma, whose antacid drug Promag is a household name in Indonesia, is seeking a partner in Sri Lanka and eyeing the Middle East as a new market for its nutritional products.

The pharmaceutical company, Southeast Asia’s biggest, will initially export its products to Sri Lanka before joining hands with a local company to manufacture its generic drugs, President Director Vidjongtius said in an interview in Jakarta on Tuesday. It’s also expanding to the Middle East after the positive response to test-marketing of its packaged coconut water, he said.