Jakarta, July 5, 2022.

The Directorate General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices through the Directorate of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience organized a meeting “Collaboration between Government and Educational Institutions in Research to Accelerate the Development of Domestic Vaccines and Antigens” at Manhattan Hotel, Jakarta.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given a considerable shock to the health system, where difficulties are felt due to shortages of medical devices, drugs, vaccines and oxygen. Responding to conditions during the pandemic, the Ministry of Health encourages cooperation and synergism from various parties, namely academics / researchers, the health industry, and the government to encourage and produce domestically produced COVID-19 handling products.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health is making efforts to Transform the Health System, one of which includes the transformation of the health security system. This transformation is carried out through increasing the resilience of the pharmaceutical sector which includes meeting the needs of chemical raw materials/active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), biological products, vaccines, and natural (phytopharmaca) from domestic production and increasing their utilization in the country as well as exports.

In Indonesia, there are 14 types of government program vaccines consisting of BCG, DPT-Hib, Hepatitis B, MMR/MR, Polio (OPV-IPV), TT/DT/td, JE, HPV, PCV, and Rotavirus. These vaccines are widely used for government program vaccinations but the vaccine antigens still cannot be produced domestically. In addition to the 14 types of government program vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccine is still a necessity in fighting a pandemic that is still ongoing or may occur again in the future.

To be able to realize independence in the field of vaccines, synergism and collaboration from all stakeholders involved from upstream to downstream are needed. One of the important stakeholders as the spearhead of domestic vaccine development and research is researchers from universities, research institutes, and industry.

The meeting, which was officially opened by the Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, L. Rizka Andalucia, discussed the government's efforts to accelerate domestic vaccine research and development and opportunities for domestic vaccine development.

“In realizing the resilience and independence of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, it cannot be done only from the government side, but also requires joint efforts and active participation from all relevant stakeholders, including researchers, innovators, research institutions, and the health industry,” said Rizka.

Attending this meeting were 52 participants consisting of University Research Team Industry, GPFI Management, APTFI Management and the Ministry of Health. This meeting is a series of ABGC coordination activities in encouraging the achievement of health security, especially pharmaceutical security. This forum is expected to harmonize the steps of the government and universities and research institutes to formulate the direction of research and development.