The Indonesian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) organized a cross-sector meeting through the Vaccine, Therapeutic and Diagnostic (VTD) Prioritization Workshop in Jakarta on 2 -3 November 2023.

The meeting, which was organized by the Directorate of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience, aimed to define the criteria to be used to determine VTD priority commodities to be produced locally.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the need to build health resilience systems. To encourage investment and partnerships in realizing local health resilience, security of supply and effective and targeted support, it is necessary to determine the right criteria to identify priority commodities that can be produced locally in VTD products.

In Health Law Number 17 of 2023, specifically in Chapter IX Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience has been regulated, among others: research efforts, development, utilization, and maintenance of natural medicines, as well as standards, systems and governance of pharmaceutical preparations and medical devices in conditions of outbreaks, epidemics, and disasters.

"We prioritize the mastery of technology in the production of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to anticipate the conditions of outbreaks, outbreaks and disasters that will come, not only the type of vaccine but also the technology that we must develop," said Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices L. Rizka Andalusia when opening the workshop on Thursday (2/11). The RPP for the Implementation Regulation of Law Number 17 of 2023 also states that "Research and development of pharmaceutical preparations and medical devices are directed at national health security priorities that are prepared by considering public health needs, market gaps, sustainability, and support from the master plan for industrial development and national research," added Director General Rizka.

Director General Rizka hopes that this meeting will get recommendations and input that can be used as a reference and guide in formulating policies "Because policies are made not to please the government, not to facilitate the work of the Ministry of Health, not to limit innovation, but must always be community-oriented and must be useful for the community" said Director General Rizka.

Furthermore, Director General Rizka said, with many health problems, of course, it must be balanced with health programs, "We must prioritize products that must be developed, especially in vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics," he said.

According to DG Rizka, medical device products that are prioritized for production have been mapped, "We encourage domestic production in line with the health program that has been launched in the transformation agenda," said Rizka.

"In the health transformation agenda, there are many needs related to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics that we need to prepare and guard, so that they can be produced domestically," Rizka added.

Furthermore, he said "Our screening coverage rate is also still low, there are still many cases of diseases that have not been found in the community, thus encouraging us to make diagnostic tools that are easy, cheap, fast and can be done in areas with limited resources" he said.

"This health system resilience effort is our common task, which we must carry out for the realization of health system resilience in Indonesia. Research, development and resources can be more focused on achieving access and availability of priority VTDs in Indonesia in order to build a resilient health system," concluded Rizka. In this activity there were 14 speakers from various agencies including the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), WHO Indonesia Representative, Clinton Health Access Initiative, PT Kalbe Farma, Tbk, PT Kimia Farma Sungwun Pharmacopia, PT Bio Farma, IQVIA, Researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Pancasila University, General of Customs and Excise, POM Agency, LKPP, Center for Increasing Domestic Product Users (P3DN), DTO Ministry of Health, Center for Health Financing and Decentralization Policy.