PT Kalbe Farma Tbk : KALBE INTRODUCES AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES FURTHER

PRESS RELEASE No. 040/KFCP-DIR/PR/VII/23

Jakarta, July 8, 2023 - PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (Kalbe) educates the society to get to know autoimmune diseases deeper. The human body has an immune system that works to fight invading foreign particles, viruses, and bacteria off. The main role of an immune system is vital to human's body. However, autoimmune diseases can happen, which will cause our immune system to attack bodily organs, producing different symptoms.

"When it's in the joints, it's called rheumatoid arthritis, which is a term for joints inflammation. When it's on the skin, it's called psoriasis, with redness or white scales showing as its symptoms. There is also systemic lupus erythematosus, which attacks various bodily organs randomly - such as the lungs, heart, even skin and joints," dr. Nugroho Nitiyoso, MBA, a representative of the Medical Department of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk, says during an Instagram Live session of @ptkalbefarmatbk.

Nitiyoso emphasizes that, whenever symptoms happen, it is important have them consulted to a doctor to ensure if an autoimmune disease is the true cause of a condition. For example, a hurting knee can be caused by osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. This is also the case with a reddening skin, which could be caused by irritations due to the sun's rays or by an autoimmune disease.

There are many risk factors for autoimmune diseases, one of which would be genetics. Gender also plays a part, because women get autoimmune diseases more often than men do. Air pollution, including cigarette smokes, traffic-based pollutions, or waste burning, contains a lot of free radicals.

Nitiyoso states that free radicals can damage the DNA of our immune cells, which in turn would make them mistake our organs as invaders, which will then trigger a fight-off response. Some food could also contain free radicals, such as overly processed food with their trans fat, deep-fried food, and alcohol.

"The risk of having an autoimmune disease would increase if we had lack of some specific nutritions. Exposure to free radicals can be brought down to a minimum level by taking antioxidants, like the vitamins E, C, D, and zinc, which can safeguard our body against these radicals to help our immune system work (properly)," states dr. Nugroho.

"If our immune system works properly, it can recognize our cells and would not mistake them for foreign particles. However, if we have lack of nutritions, it would not be able to recognize our cells and it would hit the wrong target - we can develop autoimmune diseases as a result," he adds on.

One nutrition that would be important to prevent autoimmune diseases is vitamin D3. Not only would it be useful for Covid-19 or other infectious diseases patients, D3 could strengthen the body's endurance and help in the treatments of autoimmune diseases.

"It (vitamin D3) is not only to improve the state of our immune system, it is also to help stabilize it. Doctors would even prescribe a high dose of vitamin D3 over a long period of time, up to years, for patients who are having autoimmune diseases, depending on their condition," states Kenny Kowira, a pharmacist at the Product Knowledge Brand Prove Family Kalbe.

The human body can naturally produce vitamin D3 by sunbathing. However, autoimmune patients should not be exposed to direct sun rays. There is a need to add more D3 (e.g. in a dosage of 5,000 IU or more), depending on doctor consultation results for every patient.

"A high dose of vitamin D3 means we need to have vitamin K2 as a complementary supplement that brings about many benefits for the immune system, bones, heart, and other parts of our body. When there is a high dose of vitamin D3, a lot of calcium would be absorbed and stored in the body. If this calcium keeps on being pumped into our blood vessels, there could be complications with the heart. Vitamin K2 prevents this, and Kalbe has launched our Vitamin DK2 product," Kenny explains.

He says that DK2 is not only for autoimmune patients. It contains the vitamins D3 (cholecalciferol) 800 IU (20 mcg) and K2 (menaquinone-7) 100 mcg to maintain immunity. This supplement should be consumed once a day and can help bring about better benefits after we eat food that is rich in fatty acids.

Dr. Nugroho further states that, other than consuming a balanced and proper diet of nutritions, exercising would really help the body to stay in its prime conditions. The minimum duration of sleep for adults is seven hours, and when there is overtime at work, he suggests that we rest longer the day after.

"Autoimmune diseases can hit harder due to inflammations, and there are many factors that could cause them; however, regular exercise can bring down these inflammations. Regular meds and doctor consultation sessions are also important. When patients are tired, their autoimmune diseases could re-surface - this is when the doctor would adjust the dose of the meds," explains dr. Nugroho.

Kalbe at a Glance

PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (Kalbe) was established in 1966 and is one of the biggest public pharmaceutical companies in Southeast Asia. Kalbe has four main divisions that handle a portfolio of dependable and various brands: the prescription pharmaceutical division, the health products division that handles over-the-counter drugs, multivitamins, and ready-to-serve supplemental drinks, the nutritions division, and the distribution & logistics division.

Kalbe has also developed a B2B-based digital services ecosystem for the society: EMOS and KlikDokter, a B2C service. EMOS is an order management application system that helps distribution channels perform their stock or supply chain management actions. KlikDokter is a digital platform for healthcare services focusing on telemedicine, which provides health consultation and products that are needed by the society.

Kalbe now has more than 40 subsidiaries and 15 international-standard production facilities, supported by around 16,000 employees in 76 branches throughout Indonesia. Kalbe's shares have been listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange/Bursa Efek Indonesia (IDX:KLBF) since 1991.