Food, drug control office gets new name

JAKARTA (JP): Directorate General for Food and Drug Control (POM) on Wednesday became an independent institution separated from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and was renamed as the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM).

The new agency, as stipulated in Presidential Decree No. 166/2000, will be put directly under the President's supervision and will coordinate with the ministry of health and social welfare.

"By becoming an independent body, the BPOM will be more effective in dealing with complex problems concerning drugs and food and how to supervise it.

"It will function like the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the United States," Minister of Health and Social Welfare Achmad Sujudi said after the enactment ceremony of the new body on behalf of President Abdurrahman Wahid in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

"Many people don't know that actually we already have generic medicines for 90 percent of drug supplies in the country.. so actually patients do not have to pay for expensive drugs with the same healing capabilities. Now BPOM can handle that," the minister said.

Former POM director general Sampurno is appointed as chairman of the agency, which will employ some 2,500 employees from the former office and the ministry of health.

"Thanks to the House (of Representatives) members, this new agency is allotted a budget of Rp 44 billion.

"We will start revising the policy on food and drugs in a rational way as well as intensifying surveillance and protection for consumers," Sampurno told the media.

The agency will work with related institutions and non- governmental organizations in handling various matters on food and drugs.

The existing POM offices will function as usual and there will be more branches up to the regional level, he said.

"In sensitive areas such as airports, ports and borders, there will be POM offices as we know that the transportation of drugs and food pass through these gates. In Soekarno-Hatta Airport for instance, we will work with the director general for customs and excise and the quarantine office," he said.

It will also be essential to place a unit of POM's personnel in every airport, seaport and border such as in West Kalimantan and Riau to prevent the smuggling of medicines and food, he said.

"We want to give maximum protection and avoid health risks among people with a high level of standards and security," said 50-year-old Sampurno, a graduate from Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University's school of pharmacy.

The new agency will also set up a committee for public service, a center of illegal food and drugs investigation, an information center for drugs, food and beverages, a 24-hour hotline for public complaints and a center for food, drugs and beverages poisoning cases.

"We have no choice but to start ordering existing food and drugs circulating in the country. Indonesia, for instance, is home to thousands of traditional medicines and we have never really had an effective way of supervising them.

"There are many drugs passing into and out of the country and people tend to use them without knowing their ingredients," Sampurno said.

Local governments have enough resources to perform a supervisory role.

"Laboratories and equipment in the regions are relatively competent, such as those at the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura. We've tried to fulfill the equipment needs for every lab over the past three years," Sampurno added. (edt)