JAKARTA. PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (KLBF) received the Best CEO in Pharmaceuticals award at the 2023 TOP CEO Awards in Bali last Friday (1/12). Vidjongtius, CEO of Kalbe Farma, received this prestigious title thanks to his quick response in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which enabled the company to face this global crisis.

Vidjongtius began his role as CEO of Kalbe Farma in 2017 after a long career at the Kalbe Farma Group since 1990. With his proven experience, he was able to understand the condition of the Indonesian pharmaceutical industry and utilize his abilities to guide Kalbe Farma to survive and grow when the COVID-19 pandemic hit through measurable business strategies.

"The strategy at that time was more about a strategy to speed up the supply chain, combined with an innovation strategy to look for products or medicines that could quickly help solve the COVID problem," said Vidjongtius to IDNFinancials during an exclusive interview some time ago regarding the TOP CEO 2023 Awards nominations.

Regarding the possibility of a similar crisis in the future, Vidjongtius seems sharp in seeing the problem of dependence on imports of medicinal raw materials in Indonesia. "The most feasible step at this time is to expand or widen supply cooperation from producing countries, before we enter the second phase to prepare local production facilities," he explained further.

He also revealed that Kalbe Farma had started production of medicines based on biological products in 2018. "In the next 5 or 10 years, we already have plans to build new facilities to, again, reduce dependence on imports of materials and finished goods in the future”, he added.

Vidjongtius targets that in the next 5-10 years, the level of imported components in Kalbe Farma medicines can decline to 75%-80% from the 90% currently recorded.

Not only that, Kalbe Farma, under his leadership, has also begun to implement ESG principles that are in accordance with the pharmaceutical and health industries. Kalbe Farma is also one of the largest drug producers for BPJS Kesehatan customers.

Apart from KLBF's operational achievements, this company has also recorded consistently growing financial performance in the last 5 years, with the biggest spike recorded in 2021. Until the end of 2022, the company still continued its positive trend, recording sales of IDR 28.9 trillion and a net profit of IDR 3.45 trillion. Thanks to Kalbe Farma's strategy and achievements, Vidjongtius deserved to receive the title of Best CEO in Pharmaceuticals by Tempo-IDNFinancials.

TOP CEO Awards 2023 is the second form of collaboration between Tempo.co and IDNFinancials, continuing the successful launch of Index52 last June. This award was given to 43 CEOs of Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) issuers who were considered successful in bringing their companies through the crisis by not forgetting their commitment to ESG principles. (ZH/LM)