The pharmaceutical industry is one of the essential points that play a role in public health factors. The more sophisticated the science in the pharmaceutical field, the easier it is to identify any health disorders or symptoms.
Whether you realize it or not, since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Indonesia and even the world, more and more types of severe health problems have been found. Like a new variation of the coronavirus, an evaluation for the implementation of the Covid-19 vaccine starting from dose 1 to booster.
Following the formation of these new variants, pharmaceutical companies continue to develop the latest innovations for the sake of public health. On this occasion, we will describe the proportions and challenges of the pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia. Read more!
Understanding the Potential of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Indonesia
The Pharmaceutical Industry is a licensed business entity from the Ministry of Health to carry out activities for manufacturing drugs or medicinal ingredients. The manufacture of drugs is all stages and processes of producing drugs.
From the procurement of drug-making materials, production, packaging, and quality control to quality assurance until distribution. The pharmaceutical industry is related to the manufacture of drugs, medicinal ingredients, education, training, research, and development.
Health is the primary need of every living thing, especially humans, whose life will always be related to medicine, healthcare practices, and the like.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which until now still covers the whole country, even though humans are now trying to adapt to new habits, has also opened broad public awareness of the importance of medicines, in addition to the role of medical devices and health workers.
Many countries invest heavily in health research programs to deal with these health problems.
The pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia is a promising sector. As a result of increased demand, the Government has included the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors as priority sectors to realize the Making Indonesia 4.0 program.
Challenges of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Indonesia
The promising potential in medicine does not necessarily pave the way for every activist in this industry. Several challenges need to be of concern to both business actors and the government, and here are some of them.
1. Raw material
As much as 95% of pharmaceutical raw materials are still obtained by import. Of course, this adds to the cost or production costs. The condition was exacerbated by the increase in the exchange rate against the US dollar, which is currently more than IDR 15,000 per USD.
The pharmaceutical industry’s dependence on imported goods makes the selling price of patent medicines even higher. Compared with the people’s purchasing power, it is not in sync. Despite the large production, many people choose generic drugs.
Overcoming this challenge, the government is committed to reducing imports by 35% by the end of 2022. This is done by increasing medical device production facilities yearly starting from 2015.
2. Acceleration of licensing
The next challenge is licensing issues. If you have yet to obtain permission from related agencies such as the Ministry of Health, BPOM, and so on, pharmaceutical products are not allowed to circulate.
Meanwhile, community needs increase in a short time and are sometimes even unpredictable. The speed of licensing with the production process and consumer demand is different.
In this case, the Government has prepared a road map to accelerate the development of the pharmaceutical industry. This includes procedures as well as product development goals and timeframes.
Several products that have received accelerated permits include surgical masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), and hand sanitizer gel. Of course, it will be followed by various medicines, vitamins, supplements, medical devices, etc.
Significant economic and demographic growth has made Indonesia ideal for the healthcare market. This is a potential business gap to explore as well as innovate in business in the health sector.
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