Annually, every third-year pharmacy students at Universitas Indonesia has excursion study weeks. I had the opportunity on June 17th-27th 2014. The theme for this year is "SHARK: Study How A Pharmacist Work". During excursion study, we visited factories and instititutions related to the place where we as the future pharmacist could have a work.
The first day, it's Tuesday, 17 June 2014, we visited Yakult and Pocari Sweat Factory. Yakult is a probiotic product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium
Lactobacillus casei Shirota. In Indonesia, the factory named PT Yakult Indonesia Persada, establised sinced February 2nd 1990, started to produce on 1991. At first, the factory was located in Pasar Rebo, Jakarta, but then, moved to Sukabumi, precisely at Indolakto Industrial Area, Desa Pasawahan, Cicurug, Sukabumi-West Java 43359. The product excellences are capable to bear the stomach acidity, capable to reach small intestines, and belong to the group of good bacteries. Besides that, Yakult product also doesn't use preservative and dye material. The production process was good, they said that every 2 years, they apply for halal registration. During the visiting, we were told to save the product in proper place which is in a cooled area, for example in the fridge, because, if the product is saved below the light, the usefullness of the product will be lost. We have to assure the market where we buy the products is saved in proper place. To know more about PT Yakult Indonesia Persada, you can visit
here.
From Yakult Factory, we continued the excursion study to Pocari Sweat Factory. Pocari Sweat is one of products from PT. Amerta Indah Otsuka in Indonesia. Pocari Sweat is invented in Japan by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. If I were not wrong, the inventor is Takaichi, he got a lot of royalty. In Indonesia, Pocari Sweat is a popular drink and people know "Go Ion!" as Pocary Sweat tagline. The location PT Amerta Indah Otsuka that we visited is on Jalan Raya Siliwangi (Jalan Raya Sukabumi), Desa Kutajaya KM 28, Cicurug, Sukabumi 43359. To know more about Pocari Sweat, you can visit
here and
here.
The next day, it's on June 18th 2014, we visited Bio Farma. Bio Farma is located on Pasteur street No. 28 Bandung, West Java, 40161. Bio Farma is the only one national company in Indonesia which has vaccine and immunosera as their products even Bio Farma is the biggest company of those products in South East Asia. It has been 124 years since 1890 Bio Farma established. The first name was Parc Vaccinogen in the Millitary Hospital Weltervrrden. The vision of Bio Farma is to become world class of life science company. It was really suprising having Bio Farma as our national company has global competitiveness. Besides viewing the process production from outside, we also had the opportunity to visit Bio Farma Museum. The museum kept collections correlated to the history of their productions. If you want to know more about Bio Farma, you can see
here.
That day, we only visited one company, for the afternoon, we spent our time shopping or enjoying the cuisines in Riau Street, Bandung. I really enjoyed shopping in Riau Street, the items were unique and good.
The night before thursday, I had bad condition and made me difficult to sleep. I felt really dizzy, the stomach wasn't friendly, and I had been vomiting 5 times. So when we visited UGM (Universitas Gajah Mada) on Thursday, I couldn't enjoy the visiting. At UGM, we visited the Pharmacy Faculty. They had laboratories more than we had in UI. Our pharmacy faculty had become faculty since 2012, so it still new for us becoming faculty, some years before, our pharmacy was under Mathematical and Natural Science Faculty.
On Friday, June 20th 2014, we visited Sari Roti and Nyonya Meneer Museum. Firstly, we visited the factory of Sari Roti which is located in Semarang, PIER Area, Jalan Rya Rembang Industri No. 28, Pasuruan 67152. Sari Roti is the brand for popular bread. My friends and I are really familiar with the bread because we usually buy it every time we felt hungry during the lectures. As we arrived at the factory, we were viewed by their company profile and having the opportunity to see the process production from outside. Luckily, we went home and were given a lot of bread as the gifts. If you want to know more about Sari Roti, you can click
here.
In the afternoon, we visited Nyonya Meneer Museum, the look of the museum was truly traditional. Not only the look, but also the atmosphere was traditional too. Nyonya Meneer is a brand for a lot tof herbal medicine product that we usually call them as "Jamu". Nyonya Meneer has established since 1919. The founder is Mrs. Meneer. Her parents were really good in dispending jamu. The capability of dispending jamu then came down to Mrs. Meneer. At first, Mrs. Meneer only produce jamu for their family, then because of the demand from other people, Mrs. Meneer start to open factory. Now, Nyonya Meneer has created 200s item, 74% item is female products. If you want to by Nyanya Meneer products, you can visit
here.
Travelling almost along Java Island was finished after we enjoyed Karimun Jawa tourism. We visited Karimun Jawa on Saturday, June 21st 2014. To reach Karimun Jawa we took ferry and it spent almost 5 hours over the sea. The views were really beautiful especially under the sea. We could sea various wonderful sea creatures, even we were facilitated taking photos under the sea by the guide.
We back to Depok on Sunday and arrived at home around Monday morning. At least, we had one day to take a rest after the long journey before continuing the excursion study for next 4 days.
The next excursion study was visiting factories or institutions around Jakarta, so we didn't need to take the night in a housing or hotel. We went out on the early morning then returned on the night.
The first day, on Tuesday, June 24th 2014, we visited Dharmais Hospital and L'Oreal Factory. At Dharmais Hospital, we visited the pharmacy installation because in the hospital, the place where pharmacist works is in the pharmacy installation. We saw the organizations around dispending until delivering the medicines. Dharmais Hospital is the hospital for cancer disease, the location is on Let Jend. S. Parman Street Kav 84-86 Slipi, West Jakarta, 11420. If you want to know more about Dharmais Hospital, you can visit
here.
L'Oreal is the brand for popular cosmetic products. If you usually use Garnier, Garnier is one of L'Oreal products. The location is on Jababeka I Industry Area, Jababeka IV Street Blok V 10-33 and 44-63 North Cikarang, Bekasi. As we arrived in the front of the factory, I was amazed by the huge, elegant, modern, and beautiful of the factory. I wonder how the condition in the inside is. Although we were late, the L'Oreal people were really friendly and greeted us well. If you want to know more about L'Oreal, you can visit
here.
On Wednesday, June 25th 2014, we visited BPOM and Mustika Ratu. BPOM is our national medicine and food controller institutions. Most of the employees are pharmacist. BPOM is the only institution in Indonesia that gives registration number for product. If you want to know more about BPOM, you can click
this.
In the afternoon, we continued to visit Mustika Ratu. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the factory because of some reasons so we visited the office on Gatot Subroto Street Kav 74-75, Jakarta 12870. We listened the presentation about Mustika Ratu then the lucky one of my friends had the opportunity to be made over using Mustika Ratu cosmetics products. The results was gorgeous. If you want to visit Mustika Ratu website, click
here.
The next day, on Thursday, June 26th 2014, we visited LIPI and Kalbe. LIPI (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia) is a research institution in Indonesia. Located on Jalan Raya Jakarta-Bogor KM 56, Cibinong, Bogor.We visited the Biology Department. The presentation from LIPI researchers was awesome. After the presentation, we had the opportunity to visit their laboratorium and their collections. To know more, visit
here.
We continued the excursion study to Kalbe Farma Factory on Delta Sillicon Industry Area, MH Thamrin Stret Blok A3-I Lippo-Cikarang, Bekasi 17550. We had the opportunity to see how the production process of Promag (one of Kalbe Farma products). Kalbe Farma is popular brand for various medicines. We were really enjoyed the visiting. I don't have much documentation here. If you want to visit the website, click
here.
Finally, the last day of excursion study, it was on Friday, June 27th 2014. That day, we only visited Taisho, the location of the factory is not far from our college, it spent almost 30 minutes. The location is on Jalan Raya Bogor KM 38. If you usually use counterpain, nah counterpain is one of Taisho Pharmaceutical products. We were really excited because we looked the production process directly, so we were also capable to communicate with the employee. I didn't have any documentation yet in this visiting because this was the last excursion study, my energy became low.
Visiting so many factories and institutions, I came to conclusions that the area where pharmacists can work are the department of Quality Control, Quality Assurance, PPIC (Production Planning and Inventory Control), etc. Only a few of factories or companies in Indonesia that had Research and Development (RnD) Department, for example Kalbe Farma and Bio Farma. Some international factories for example L'Oreal doesn't have RnD department in Indonesia, but have it in Shanghai not in Indonesia. One thing I learnt from visiting national or international companies, all the subject we had had on the lectures, only 4% used, the rest will be learnt during the work.
For institutions like BPOM, it's obvious that pharmacist can have large opportunity to work, there are several selections to become BPOM employee and it's not easy.
That's all I can tell about my excursion study journal for almost two weeks. I hope it will be useful for your references especially for you who will become pharmacist. If there is a mistake, I stand here to apologize. Thanks for the visiting :D
