90 Percent Of Medicinal Raw Materials From Outside, Jokowi Sentences On The Pharmaceutical Industry: Reducing Imports

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo asked all pharmaceutical industries to carry out national health reform. These reforms include achieving independence for drugs and drug raw materials by reducing imports.

He said this when he opened the National Working Meeting (Rakernas) and the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Indonesian Pharmacists Association, which were broadcast on YouTube of the Presidential Secretariat.

"Indonesia's biodiversity richness must be used as the basic capital in the revival of the domestic drug industry. Biodiversity must be utilized to strengthen community resilience in the health sector," said Jokowi, Thursday, November 5.

Jokowi said that around 90 percent of drugs and medicinal raw materials still rely on imports. In fact, according to him, Indonesia is very rich in biodiversity, both on land and in the oceans.

"This (import) clearly wastes foreign exchange, adds to the current account deficit, and makes the domestic pharmaceutical industry unable to grow properly," said Jokowi.

Therefore, Jokowi continued, independence in the medicine and medical equipment industry must be a shared priority amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jokowi said that the pandemic has generated a sense of crisis in the pharmaceutical world to spur research activities, develop innovations, revitalize the domestic pharmaceutical raw material industry, to strengthen the national pharmaceutical industry manufacturing structure.

"Phytopharmaca drugs also need to be facilitated to pass clinical trials and standardization so that they become a promotive and preventive treatment option," said the former DKI Governor.

Furthermore, Jokowi hopes that the revival of the national pharmaceutical industry will at the same time strengthen the national economy, both those working in the upstream and downstream industries, and improve the welfare of farmers and MSMEs.