[hanomantoto]

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said his ministry will push for more domestic medicine manufacturing to cut back on imported products.

“We’re not trying to monopolize the industry, but we must build resilience and security,” Budi told the media crew at the Health Innovation Festival on Friday, November 8, 2024. This way, Budi said, Indonesia is prepared for another pandemic with adequate medicine and vaccine stocks. 

Budi said there are three ways to improve domestic medicine production: first, simplifying permits; second, inviting foreign pharmaceutical companies to partner with Indonesian companies; and third, affirmative incentives by purchasing domestically-produced medicines. 

The ministry’s budget is sufficient to support such measures, Budi said, as the 2025 State Budget granted the Health Ministry a Rp105.64 trillion budget.

The domestic component level (TKDN) mechanism that former President Jokowi’s administration has implemented also supports larger domestic medicine production. 

Tempo Newspaper, published on July 9, 2024, previously reported that Indonesia’s medical device and pharmaceutical supplies still relied on imported products. The government recorded over 90 percent of pharmaceutical materials to be imported, while medical devices logged 52 percent of imported products. This over-reliance on imported pharmaceutical products causes higher medicine prices in Indonesia.

Vindry Florentin contributed to the writing of this article.

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