Kalbe Farma (KLBF) shares are sluggish compared to state-owned pharmaceutical companies, this is the reason

ILLUSTRATION. President Director of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (KLBF) Vidjongtius in the press conference of the KLBF AGMS which was held online, Monday (18/5).

Reporter: Nur Qolbi | Editor: I knew Laoli

KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. On two trading days this week, state-owned pharmaceutical stocks shot up significantly. In accumulation, the highest increase was recorded by PT Indofarma Tbk (INAF) which shot up 36.36% to the level of Rp 4,720 per share.

Followed by PT Kimia Farma Tbk (KAEF) which increased 33.57% to the level of IDR 4,810 per share and PT Phapros Tbk (THIGH) which rose 25.26% to Rp 2,100 per share. Meanwhile, private pharmaceutical issuers, namely PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (KLBF) only rose 0.68% on Monday (7/12) and then fell 0.67% on Tuesday (8/12) to the position of IDR 1,478 per share.

Panin Sekuritas analyst Rendy Wijaya assessed that the sluggish KLBF movement compared to other pharmaceutical companies was due to a ban on private companies to import the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021.

This prohibition was conveyed by Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir at the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) which took place on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Also Read: Bio Farma is targeting a minimum of 16.5 million people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2021

Private companies may not import the Covid-19 vaccine for 2021 so that the price and distribution can be controlled. It is possible that the private sector will only be able to import the Covid-19 vaccine under various brands in 2022 or 2023.

Even so, apart from the government’s import ban, according to Rendy, Kalbe Farma has not been able to import vaccines. The reason is, the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is the result of collaboration with Genexine from South Korea, is still in clinical trial stages I and II.

Kalbe Farma President Director Vidjongtius agrees with this. According to him, the Kalbe Farma vaccine candidate is still in the clinical trial stage so it cannot be imported at this time.

“We estimate that clinical trials will be completed in the middle of 2021 or the third quarter of 2021,” said Vidjongtius when contacted by Kontan.co.id, Wednesday (9/12). For this reason, Kalbe Farma will continue to the next stage of clinical trials while monitoring developments in existing regulations.

Also Read: This is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the performance and market share of pharmaceutical holding