The Ministry of Health together with the Indonesian Consulate General in Osaka and the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo organized the Indonesia-Japan Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Business Forum on October 6, 2022 which was attended by 300 participants. This event was initiated with the cooperation of the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo, Indonesian Consulate General in Osaka, KADIN Indonesia-Japan Billateral Committee, Ministry of Industry, IIPC Tokyo and ITPC Osaka as well as several Japanese partners such as METI Kansai, FPMAJ and JETRO.

Representatives of the Indonesian delegation in this event were attended by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha, Director of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience of the Ministry of Health Roy Himawan, KADIN, the Indonesian Medical Device Manufacturers Association (ASPAKI) and the Indonesian Pharmaceutical Companies Association (GPFI). Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Heri Akhmadi explained that this business forum event was also a proactive step to support concrete realization in the pillar of Global Health cooperation in Indonesia's G20 Presidency.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha said that this strengthening is in line with the six pillars of the National Health transformation. Indonesia is currently developing a national health digital platform (SatuSehat), and a genomic approach (BGSi). Both programs are expected to collaborate with Japan.

"We invite partners from Japan to contribute to the development of pharmaceutical technology and medical devices in Indonesia," said Secretary General Kunta. On the third pillar, Secretary General Kunta continued, we are in the process of changing the resilience of the health system through increasing domestic pharmaceutical and medical device production.

In accordance with the needs of health services both in primary and secondary care, strengthening biotechnology is carried out through mastery of viral vectors, nucleic acid-based technology, recombinant proteins to produce vaccines and drugs for the community in the country such as, erythropoietin, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and plasma-derived products. In pharmaceuticals, we aim to produce 6 out of 10 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) locally.

Secretary General Kunta hopes for further exploration ranging from partnerships, technology transfer, to research collaboration to be able to increase domestic production of medical devices, consumable medical materials, and vaccine manufacturing.

"To achieve the resilience target, we have established a policy that includes critical steps starting from the facilitation of clinical trials and technology transfer. In terms of production, we also prioritize the acceleration of domestic production," continued Secretary General Kunta.

As an outcome of the Farmalkes business forum, a commitment of cooperation was signed between GPFI and its Japanese counterpart, the Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of Japan (FPMAJ), specifically to open contacts in exploring co-production and research. FPMAJ Director General Toshihiko Miyajima expects further collaboration with Indonesia in the field of healthcare.