Towards Pharmacy Independence, Ministry Of Industry Builds Natural Medicine Production Facility

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) has built a natural medicinal production facility known as the House of Wellness. The construction of this facility is expected to realize independence in the drug industry in Indonesia.

"House of Wellness, which is a natural medicinal production facility that has been built by the Center for Standardization and Services for Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Packaging Industries, is one of the active roles of the Ministry of Industry in supporting policies for the independence of natural ingredients," said Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita during the inauguration ceremony in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 6.

Minister of Industry Agus said, with the construction of this facility, it is hoped that it can help the community to be able to obtain drugs easily (accessible), affordable (affordable), available anywhere (available) and sustainable.

In addition, he said, through the House of Wellness, it is hoped that the pharmaceutical industry in the country can achieve the manufacture of natural medicines that have standard raw materials and support micro entrepreneurs such as herbal medicine so that they can advance to class.

"I hope that this facility can be utilized optimally so that it can encourage the independence of national drugs through the growth of new industries, increase small industries to advance to class and develop new products and become a collaboration center for all stakeholders and the natural medicinal industry," he said.

On the same occasion, the Head of the Standardization and Industrial Services Policy Agency (BSKJI) of the Ministry of Industry Andi Rizaldi said that the facilities at the House of Wellness were equipped with complete supporting equipment and facilities for drug processing.

This facility consisting of four floors has been equipped with supporting tools in the form of simplicial processing (fresh and dry) which supports the process of sorting, washing, slicing, allowances and drying.

In addition, this facility can also support the extraction, evacuation, formulation, and even product packaging processes.

"The production facilities have been installed by following the provisions contained in Good Traditional Manufacturing Practices (CPOTB) and the machines used have been adjusted to the machines also used in natural medicinal industries," he added.

For your information, the traditional chemical, pharmaceutical and medicinal industries have proven to be one of the sectors that contribute significantly to foreign exchange.

In 2023, the export value for pharmaceutical industrial products, chemical products and traditional medicines will increase by 8.78 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, with an export value of 543.7 million US dollars.

Meanwhile, based on data from Bank Indonesia (BI), industrial volume in the Prompt Manufacturing Index-BI (PMI-BI) in the chemical, pharmaceutical and traditional medicine industry shows optimistic value in the threshold above 50 percent with the value of PMI BI in the fourth quarter of 2023 reaching 52.50 or in the expansion phase.

Meanwhile, the world's natural medicinal market in 2023 alone has reached 200.95 billion US dollars and is expected to continue to increase. Therefore, the development of the natural material drug industry needs to continue to be improved in order to be able to compete in the global market.