Flying To Kediri Criminal Investigation Agency, Check Directly For Artificial Medicines Made By PT Afi Farma

Medicine illustration (Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Directorate of Certain Crimes of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police immediately visited PT Afi Farma in Kediri. This step was taken after the investigation of cases of acute kidney failure was upgraded to investigation status.

Initially, PT Afi Farma was one of the companies suspected of producing paracetamol containing ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) in its product.

"Yes, he went straight to Kediri, yesterday after finishing the case, he immediately went there", said the Director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the National Police, Brigadier General Pipit Rismanto, to reporters, Wednesday, November 2.

Investigators want to know the raw materials for making drugs at PT Afi Farma. So, it will be one of the guides in the investigation process.

"Material evidence is to find out what the pre-production process is like. Then during the production process what is it like? That's what we always have to want to know. Then who will be responsible if there is this error", said Pipit.

The Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) found that the Paracetamol product produced by PT Afi Pharma was contaminated with kidney-damaging compounds.

The findings were obtained by BPOM based on the results of sampling tests on 102 lists of syrup drug products submitted by the Indonesian Ministry of Health to test the feasibility of raw material contained in the Food and Drug Administration of the Republic of Indonesia (BPOM RI) laboratory because they were suspected to be related to cases of acute kidney disorders in Indonesia.

The kidney-damaging contaminant in question propylene glycol exceeds the safety threshold, thereby triggering ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) contamination in the product.

BPOM has completed testing on the entire list of syrup drug products reported by the Ministry of Health. From a total of 102 products, three private pharmaceutical manufacturers were found with the results of EG and DEG contamination.

Apart from PT Afi Farma, another producer is PT Universal Pharmaceutical Industries in Tanjung Mulia, Medan, North Sumatra.

A joint team from BPOM and the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police confiscated hundreds of thousands of syrup products under the Unibebi trademark for fever and cough produced by PT Universal.