Indonesian Pharma Billionaire Boenjamin Setiawan Dies At 90

Boenjamin Setiawan, cofounder of the country’s largest publicly listed pharmaceutical company Kalbe Farma, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 90. Setiawan, who was popularly known as Dr. Boen, died at 8.05 a.m. in Jakarta’s Medistra Hospital, said Kalbe Farma’s President Director Vidjongtius.

Setiawan will be buried at San Diego Hills Memorial Park in West Java next Saturday. Setiawan is survived by wife, Poppy Hadiman, and two children. His daughter Shinta Deviyanti Setiawan serves on the board of commissioners at the family’s hospital chain operator Mitra Keluarga Karyasehat, and son Sanadi Boenjamin is on the board of commissioners at the family’s trading company Enseval Putera Megatrading.

With a net worth of $4.8 billion, Setiawan and family were ranked No. 8 on the list of Indonesia’s 50 Richest when it was published in December.

“Dr. Boen was an innovative figure and a continuous researcher,” Vidjongtius said in a written statement. “As a member of the National Research Council, he had a major role in advancing the national research and development (R&D) industry, which his research will remain to develop through partnership between academician, private sector, government and community.”

In an interview with Forbes Indonesia in 2012, Setiawan credited Kalbe Farma’s rapid growth on innovation through R&D. “We have been developing very fast, because we are putting a lot of emphasis on research and development. I think this is our key to success,” he said at the time.

After graduating from the medical school at the University of Indonesia in 1958, Setiawan served as a lecturer at his alma mater until 1986. In 1961, he was awarded a doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of California San Francisco in the U.S., where he also briefly taught.

Setiawan, who also goes by the Chinese name Khouw Lip Boen, began his entrepreneurial journey in 1966 when he established Kalbe Farma in a modest garage in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. His cofounders at the time were his five siblings: Khow Lip Tjoen, Theresia Harsini Setiady, Khouw Lip Swan, Maria Karmila and Franciscus Bing Aryanto.

Setiawan had served as president commissioner of Kalbe Farma from 1991 to 2008. In his first year in that role, the company went public on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. As of February this year, his family continued hold a 58% stake in Kalbe Farma through several holding companies.

Over the years, Kalbe Farma has expanded its offerings to include prescription pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medicines, energy drinks, nutrition products, medical devices, clinics, distribution and logistics as well as e-commerce.

During the pandemic, the company’s Stem Cell and Cancer Institute launched saliva-based Covid-19 diagnostic kit, and the company’s telemedicine portal Klikdokter was appointed by the government to distribute treatment products for Covid-19.

In several JVs, the company partnered with healthcare global players include Singapore-based vitamins and supplements firm Blackmores International and South Korea-based biotechnology company Genexine.

Kalbe Farma now sells its products in 43 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe and South America. Last year, 2022, Kalbe Farma reported that its revenue jumped 11% to 28.9 trillion rupiah ($1.94 billion), and its net profit rose 6.2% in the same period to 3.38 trillion rupiah.

Apart from Kalbe Farma, the Setiawan family also controls Jakarta-listed Mitra Keluarga Karyasehat, which operates a chain of 26 hospitals across Jakarta, West Java and Banten.