5,500 Medicinal Products Frozen From The Ministry Of Health Catalog, Some Akali Moved To The BRIN List

Illustration of medicinal products for health. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Goods/Services Procurement Policy Institute (LKPP) has frozen more than 5,500 domestic medicinal products from the government's electronic catalog.

Thousands of drugs were frozen because they violated the provisions on substitution of imported raw materials.

"Now more than 5,500 products have been frozen, because there are already imported substitutes," said Head of LKPP, Azwar Anas, on the agenda for the launch of the BioColoMelt-Dx molecular diagnostic kit at Darmais Hospital, Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, July 19.

According to Azwar, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has instructed all relevant agencies to reduce dependence on imports of medicinal raw materials, which now reach more than 90 percent.

Currently, the government has facilitated the substitution of imported medicinal raw materials through the provision of substitute components from various domestic sources.

"What the president has asked for is to continue to suppress it, if possible 40 percent must be purchased from domestic industries," he said.

Azwar said that LKPP is tasked with encouraging domestic products to be purchased by the APBN or APBD in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and related institutions.

One form of sanctions for violating the substitution of imported raw materials, he said, is to freeze product offers in the LKPP's electronic catalog.

Since the regulation came into effect, continued Azwar, as many as 90 more than a total of 5,500 drug products that violate, are still dealing with product freezing sanctions by moving to electronic catalog pages in other government agencies.

"After being frozen in the Ministry of Health's electronic catalog, some have moved to other ministry catalogs, such as the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and others," he said.

To anticipate the fraud, said Azwar, LKPP together with the Ministry of Health held a high-level coordination between the ministries, so that changes in the codes of these products could be detected.

"But we will conclude, if they still appear elsewhere, then we will revoke the business registration number (NIB), so they cannot move around," he said.