Cheap drugs remain elusive

Cheap drugs remain elusive

The government has encouraged private pharmaceutical companies
to make an effort to provide affordable medicines, currently much
in demand due to the increased number of poor people resulting
from the prolonged economic crisis.

"The problem of the accessibility of affordable medicines
should be overcome immediately before it becomes more widespread
and more complex," the head of the Medicine and Food Supervisory
Agency, Sampurno, told a seminar on Saturday.

Sampurno said that over 60 percent of Indonesia's roughly 203
million people were now living under the poverty line and up to
20 percent of them were living in extreme property.

He said that Indonesia needed generic medicines, which were 40
percent cheaper than patented brands due to their negligible
promotional and packaging costs.

Sampurno stressed that providing affordable medicines was one
of the pharmaceutical companies' social and humanitarian
functions.--JP