With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all corners of the world, the demand for medicines and medical devices has increased. The pharmaceutical and medical device industries around the world are required to produce in larger volumes and faster amid the ongoing pandemic in order to keep up with the large amount of demand. Of course, the strategy of importing medicines and medical devices continues to be pursued to ensure the availability of domestic stocks. However, we cannot only rely on imported products, so the Indonesian government has decided that resilience is necessary, especially in the health sector. One of them is to realize independence in the pharmaceutical sector by producing homemade medicines through the use of natural ingredients as raw materials that have been scientifically proven for safety and efficacy by pre-clinical and clinical trials and have been standardized, called Fitofarmaka.
Following up on Presidential Instruction No. 2 of 2022 concerning the Acceleration of Increasing the Use of Domestic Products and Products of Micro, Small and Cooperative Enterprises in the Framework of Successful National Movement of Proudly Made in Indonesia (BBI), the Directorate General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices through the Directorate of Pharmaceutical Production and Distribution held an event "Promotion of the Use of Phytopharmacia to Local Governments" and "Increasing the Use of Phytopharmacia in Health Care Facilities" as an effort to increase the use of Phytopharmacia in health care facilities after the issuance of the Minister of Health Decree Number HK.01. .07/MENKES/1163/2022 concerning the Phytopharmaceutical Formulary.

Currently, there are 24 phytopharmaca products divided into 7 indication categories. The development and improvement of phytopharmaca certainly requires the cooperation of various parties in its realization, one of which is the role of local governments to encourage the use of phytopharmaca formularies as a reference for the use of phytopharmaca in all health service facilities, as well as to carry out promotion, education and advocacy. The use of phytopharmacia and standardized herbal medicines in health care facilities has been regulated in Permenkes No. 21 of 2016 concerning the Use of JKN Capitation Funds for Health Services and Operational Cost Support at Local Government-Owned FKTPs. In addition, the use of phytopharmacia and standardized herbal medicines in health care facilities can be through the utilization of special allocation funds, in accordance with Permenkes No. 3 of 2022 concerning Operational Guidelines for the Use of Physical Special Allocation Funds for the Health Sector for Fiscal Year 2022.
The Directorate of Pharmaceutical Production and Distribution also encourages the implementation of phytopharmaceutical education in the field of medicine by involving public and private universities to participate in preparing health human resources, especially pharmaceutical workers. In accordance with Article 108 of Law 36/2009 on Health, pharmaceutical workers are those who have the expertise and authority in pharmaceutical practice and will be responsible for the management of phytopharmaceuticals from upstream to downstream, starting from the production process in the pharmaceutical industry, distribution to pharmaceutical wholesalers, to utilization at the health facility level. Therefore, it is necessary to provide scientific provision regarding phytopharmacology during the education period.

The activity, which was held in Yogyakarta on August 11-13, 2022, was attended by the National Commission for the Formulation of Phytopharmaca, practitioners, IAI, Provincial and District / City Health Offices, Puskesmas, hospitals, and related Ministries / Institutions. This activity of promoting the use of phytopharmaca is carried out in a hybrid offline and online manner. At the meeting, the pharmaceutical industry also introduced several natural medicine products that had obtained distribution licenses. With this step, it is hoped that the phytopharmaca market can be increased rapidly so that it can support the development of phytopharmacology.