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joint venture of two Chinese companies has announced a US$100 million investment in a veterinary vaccine factory in Bogor, West Java, which is expected to help restrict the spread of bird flu in the country through more competitively priced vaccines.

The company, PT Biotis Prima Agrisindo, was co-founded by drugs giant Pharmally International Holding Co. Ltd. with a 69 percent stake, and state-owned enterprise Harbin Weike Biotechnology Development Company with a 10 percent share.

Biotis executives laid the first stone to mark the start of the construction of the new vaccine factory in Gunung Sindur on Saturday. The factory is slated for completion in the third quarter of 2017.

“In the first phase after the completion, the factory will employ about 200 local workers, while around 10 technicians from China will help in research and development and the quality control process,” Biotis chairman Huang Wen Lai said.

In that phase, Biotis will focus on producing avian influenza (bird flu) and Newcastle disease vaccines for the Southeast Asia market, particularly Indonesia.

The new factory is expected to have a total production capacity of 8 billion ampoules per year.

Indonesia already had five veterinary vaccine factories, including in Bogor and Bandung, West Java, which were sufficient to make the country self-sufficient, said Enuh Rahardjo Djusa, head of National Veterinary Drug Assay Laboratory (BBPMSOH).

However, he said the advent of Biotis could make the vaccine prices more competitive in the market.

The price of an ampoule of 1,000 doses of bird flu vaccine currently stands at between Rp 400,000 ($30.49) and Rp 500,000, according to the Indonesian Veterinary Medicine Association (Asohi).

Andi Wijanarko of Asohi said the price of bird flu vaccines had soared since 2012, when the government banned imported vaccines. Previously, the price of local vaccines stood at Rp 150,000 per ampoule, while imported vaccines could cost up to Rp 260,000.

However, he said the price would not significantly change after Biotis came to the country. “Biotis will adapt to the current price in the market,” he said.

On the other hand, Andi expected Biotis to provide better-quality vaccines so that the spread of bird flu could be completely abolished in the country, as the operations of the new factory would be directly supervised by Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI), the parent of Weike Biotechnology and the first and only research institute for veterinary medicine in China.

In Indonesia, there were 148 cases of bird flu reported in the first four months of 2016 alone, a sharp increase from the 123 cases reported throughout 2015, according to the Agriculture Ministry, which aims to fully eradicate the disease by 2020.

Andi also said there were around 150 million laying chickens and 100 million broiler chickens in the country. Usually, each type needed to be vaccinated five times within the breeding process.

Meanwhile, Biotis plans to hold an initial public offering (IPO) and add $50 million to the investment in the second phase, expected in 2020. Up to that point, the company will gradually reduce the number of technicians from China and employ more local workers.

After that, the company is expected to diversify by producing non-poultry vaccines and expand its business to the international market such as Central America, South America, Middle-Eastern countries and Russia. (vps)