BPOM Acts On "Apotek Official" Admin For Illegal Drug And Food Dealers

JAKARTA - The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has taken action against illegal drug and food dealers through the "Apotek Official" marketplace.

"This Official Pharmacy account gives the perception that it is official, even though it is not registered in the pharmaceutical electronic permit system," said Head of BPOM Penny K Lukito as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, June 7.

The account has sold a variety of illegal drugs and food with a sales volume of more than 10,000 packages and an economic value of sales of more than IDR 18 billion.

Penny said that legal action was carried out by the BPOM Civil Servant Investigation Team (PPNS) together with personnel from the PPNS Coordination and Supervision Bureau of the Indonesian Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Wednesday (10/5) afternoon.

The account manager with the initials IM (35), male, has the status of a suspect. He operates in three rented houses located at Jl Sukahati, Kp. Muara Beres No7 RT02/RW04, Sukahati, Cibinong, Bogor Regency, West Java.

"This finding is the result of an investigation into the information received by BPOM that there are illegal drug and food sales activities in the Cibinong area," he said.

He said the perpetrator opened a product order from the marketplace and made an order receipt containing information on the type and number of products ordered accompanied by a delivery destination address. The receipt was sent to employees in the storage warehouse via the WhatsApp application.

Furthermore, employees prepare orders to be packaged and sent to customers spread across the Jabodetabek and Bandung areas using expedition services.

From that location, officers confiscated evidence of illegal pharmaceutical preparations in the form of drugs, traditional medicines, health supplements, cosmetics, and illegal processed foods that did not have a distribution permit of 700 products with a total of 22,552 items.

The products in question are male medicines, such asaturation and Cialis, Vigamax, Japan Tengsu, Soloco, Vitamale, Hajar Hell, and others.

Illegal drugs and foods found are suspected of not implementing good manufacturing methods in the manufacturing process as well as with unknown doses, so they risk having a negative impact on health if consumed by the public.

"The drug contains chemicals for sildenafil and tadalaphiles which are a group of hard drugs and are at risk of causing heart attacks to death if used not according to a doctor's prescription," he said.

The suspect was charged with Article 60 of Law No. 6 of 2023 concerning Stipulation of Government Regulations in Lieu of Law of the Republic of Indonesia on Job Creation and/or with a maximum imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum fine of IDR 1.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the activities of producing or distributing pharmaceutical preparations that do not meet the standards are followed up in accordance with Article 196 Jo. Article 98 paragraph (2) and paragraph (3) of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 36 of 2009 concerning Health carries a penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of IDR 1 billion.