AUGUST 2024LIFE SCIENCES REVIEW 19The program has been used to adjust dosing and prescription for breast cancer adjuvant therapy. It has also shown cost-effectiveness for care in cardiology and breast cancer post-chemo therapy. In addition to pharmacogenomics, Nalagenetics has developed reporting and interpretation modules for different applications for germline sequencing and polygenic risk scores. Nalagenetics has worked with 40+ doctors and research hospitals in Singapore and Jakarta. The company's revenue has grown 400% in hospital partners and 60% in tests in 2021.Nusantics: Biotech company specializing in microbiome and microbial testingNusantics was founded in 2019 by Indonesia's biotech pioneers; SharliniEriza Putri, Vincent Kurniawan, and Revata Utama, as the first genomics tech startup in Indonesia specializing in the microbiome and microbial testing. Sharlini and Vincent have strong experiences in industrial bio-based products. Meanwhile, Revata is a Biomedical Scientist with more than 10 years of experience developing molecular biology products and solutions. "Microbes have caused more than 20 million cases of infectious diseases annually. In Indonesia, infectious diseases are part of the top ten illnesses covered by the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan). Thus, Nusantics wants to address these microbes-associated problems by early detection with PCR and NGS solutions," said Sharlini Eriza Putri, Nusantics' co-founder, and CEO. Nusantics began introducing these genomics technologies to the beauty industry as it was a lucrative sector and ripe for disruptions with science-backed products and solutions. In its laboratory, the startup performs a facial swab test for consumers to assess the skin's microbiome balance. By understanding the customer's skin microbiome diversity, Nusantics provides a range of clinically-tested microbiome-friendly skincare solutions for skin microbiome balance treatment.Given the healthcare challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nusantics has also provided various microbial testing solutions, including the Gargle PCR, combining Nusantics' novel gargle collection method and its proprietary rapid multiplex qRT-PCR Kit and AirScan PCR to detect the presence of COVID-19 in indoor air. Nusantics has also recently launched Bar Screen Rx Ready qRT-PCR kit for COVID-19 variant screening. By January 2022, Nusantics has launched six commercial products and has more than two pending patents with its qRT-PCR kit used for over 6 million COVID-19 PCR tests, which generated seven-fold year-on-year (YoY) revenue growth. To embrace the post-pandemic world, Nusantics plans to expand the offerings to other infectious diseases in respiratory, gastrointestinal, and sexually-transmitted diseases PCR panels as well as to build a direct-to-consumer lab in promoting microbial diagnostics as a habit. The potential of healthcare market in Indonesia According to the 2021 Global Health Security Index, which was conducted by John Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Indonesia ranked 45 from 195 of total countries, far behind from its closest countries, Singapore (24) and Malaysia (27). The index measured the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemics and pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a wake-up call for Indonesia to reform its healthcare system. The government revised the Negative Investment List in 2021, and opened the opportunity for foreign investors in most vertical lines of the health sector, especially the health support services. "We see Nusantics and Nalagenetics as leading biotech innovators, who play crucial roles in elevating and catalyzing growth of Indonesia's healthcare industry, supporting doctors, hospitals, and pharma manufacturers to develop better and more accurate healthcare solutions," Avina said. Avina Sugiarto
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