Semarang, 30 August 2023

The Ministry of Health continues to encourage the independence of domestic pharmaceuticals and medical devices. As a result, in 2023 alone from January to July there was an increase in domestic medical equipment spending worth Rp. 9.8 T.

"Currently the number of vaccines, drug raw materials, and medical devices produced domestically has increased, I noted that in 2023 this independence has begun to run with our domestic medical device spending reaching 9.8 trillion on July 23," said Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Dante Saksono Harbuwono.

Prof. Dante added that with the growth of domestic production of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, prices will be cheaper, so that health costs will be lower and can be reached by the community and hospitals in Indonesia.

Indonesia is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in Asia and its local pharmaceutical industry meets around 90 percent of Indonesia's pharmaceutical product needs. However, the industry is still limited in developing new and innovative, high-value drugs.

To achieve the country's independence in meeting pharmaceutical and medical device needs, the Ministry of Health builds the transformation of the health security system on the third pillar of health transformation.

According to Prof. Dante, the main targets of the transformation of the health resilience system include producing 14 types of vaccine antigens, mastering viral vector and nucleic acid-based vaccine technology, producing the 10 largest consumer drug raw materials, producing biological drugs and plasma derivatives, and increasing domestic spending on the largest medical devices by value and by volume as well as the production of high-tech medical devices.

Previously, the national medical device market promised massive growth with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 percent. This growth promises the potential to improve national health security, through increased local production capacity.

In order to increase the capacity of local production, the Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, L. Rizka Andalusia said that the Government seeks to build a sustainable production ecosystem, improve supply chain resilience, and also increase access to drugs and medical devices, one of which is through a forum to strengthen local manufacturing.

Director of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience Roy Himawan added that the Ministry of Health encourages the domestic industry to grow through three approaches, namely, research approach, distribution production, and market approach.

The government is ready to provide other interventions deemed strategic, according to the latest input and data, to build a more resilient health system. This support is expected to increase the capacity and capability of local production in Indonesia, which in turn can increase public access to quality health products.

The Directorate General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices of the Ministry of Health held the first Indonesia Local Production Conference to serve as a platform to increase local production and technology transfer, as well as strengthen collaboration in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries on Wednesday (30/8) in Semarang, Central Java. The existence of this forum is one way to knit all elements with an interest in building health resilience and independence such as universities, governments, institutions, hospitals, researchers, and entrepreneurs.