VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Industry focuses on developing the pharmaceutical industry in the country so that Indonesia can be independent and competitive through the development of indigenous modern medicines from within the country.

"Indonesia has the best biodiversity in the world such as ginger, lempuyang, nutmeg, patchouli, and others, which can be the main capital in building self-reliance to produce drugs," said the Head Industrial Research and Development Agency (BPPI) of the Industry Ministry, Doddy Rahadi at Jakarta, Wednesday.

Doddy Rahadi, through a written statement, said that his party encouraged the development of traditional medicines into Indonesian Original Modern Medicines (OMAI) in the form of Standardized Herbal Medicines (OHT) and phytopharmaca.

For this reason, several work units under BPPI are encouraged to increase R&D activities to produce the needed innovations.

"An example is the Jakarta Center for Chemistry and Packaging (BBKK) which has competence and experience in this field, including developing production facilities to encourage the growth of the OMAI industry," he said.

BBKK Jakarta is designing the construction of a House of Wellness facility which will be equipped with a mini plant certified for Good Traditional Medicine Manufacturing Practices (CPOTB), Smart Laboratory (R&D and QC), Center of Essential Oils (Learning Factory and Laboratory of Essential Oils Authentication) and soft computing room.

"This program is included in the BBKK phytopharmaca development roadmap 2021-2026," said Doddy.

In 2021, we plan to construct building infrastructure and support it, following the CPOTB standard. Continued in 2022, building equipment installations and CPOTB certification.

"In 2023, later, it will be able to produce extracts of natural ingredients and develop smart laboratories," he said.

It is hoped that OHT can be produced in 2024, and by 2026 the facilities will be able to produce phytopharmaca.

"In developing OMAI products requires support and cooperation with other related parties through collaboration with R&D institutions, traditional medicine or pharmaceutical industries, and other stakeholders," said Doddy.

On his working visit to BBKK Jakarta, Tuesday (13/10), Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita emphasized that his party is determined to further strengthen the manufacturing structure and increase the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Therefore, these two strategic industries have been included in additional sectors that have priority development on the Making Indonesia 4.0 road map.

"One thing that is being focused on building the national industrial sector is the availability of raw and supporting materials. This is one of the strategic issues that are being of our concern," said the Minister of Industry.

The Minister of Industry emphasized that Indonesia's independence in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry sector is important, especially in conditions of health emergencies like today.

Thus, it is hoped that the program to reduce the import rate can reach up to 35 percent by the end of 2022.

The Ministry of Industry noted that in the first quarter of 2020, the chemical, pharmaceutical, and traditional medicine industries grew positively by 5.59 percent. In addition, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are also the manufacturing sector, which paid a significant investment value in the first quarter of 2020, reaching Rp9.83 trillion. (Antaranews)