Bio Farma Revealed The Reason For The Price Of PCR Tests Of Up To Millions Of Rupiah During The Beginning Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JAKARTA - PT Bio Farma (Persero) as the parent of the state-owned pharmaceutical sector appreciates the government's determination and reduction in the price of PCR tests.

"Thank God, in my opinion, the government took over this and set the price as it is now. We see that the price of PCR tests in Indonesia is the cheapest price for PCR tests when compared to neighboring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, and even some countries such as the United Arab Emirates. Arab countries where the price of PCR tests in that country is much more expensive than the price set in Indonesia", said Bio Farma President Director, Honesti Basyir, in a Hearing Meeting with Commission VI House of Representatives quoted by Antara, Tuesday, November 9.

According to Honesti, in the early days of the pandemic, the prices for PCR tests varied widely because the prices for tests were not set by the government at that time. Some are up to IDR 2.5 million or IDR 3.5 million because most of the laboratories also make a PCR test service package system with other services, X-rays as an example.

"We believe that with the increasing supply of domestic products, maybe we can lower the price of PCR test services to a certain level and also with the business models that are currently developing between the collaboration of the PCR test machine owner and the PCR test reagent owner, it is a possibility can reduce the price to a certain level", she said.

The President Director of Bio Farma added that the model that is now set by the government by setting the highest price for this PCR test, is very helpful to make the price affordable.

So far, for pharmaceutical drugs, there is also the highest retail price (HET) set by the government, not purely through a market mechanism.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had requested that the price of the PCR test be reduced to IDR 300,000 following the mandatory use of the PCR test for the requirements for aircraft transportation modes which have received a lot of criticism lately.

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment as well as the Coordinator of the Java-Bali PPKM (Community Activity Restrictions), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said the test period was also asked by the President to be extended to 3x24 hours.