Govt launches reform of pharmaceutical industry

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek has announced the government is reforming the pharmaceutical industry by providing subsidies worth US$116 million for the importation of raw materials to produce drugs.

The government is also planning to provide raw materials obtained from domestic sources, Antara quoted the minister as saying after opening an Association of Pharmaceutical Industries congress here Saturday.

"The provision of the subsidies worth US$116 million at the rate of Rp 5,000 per dollar constitutes a reform to enable domestic pharmaceutical industries to import raw materials," the minister said.

The prices of patent and generic drugs, which during the monetary crisis have increased by about 150 percent, would gradually drop by 50 percent in the near future after the subsidy provision, the news agency said.

The deregulation in the pharmaceutical industry sector also includes the government's effort to revise customs procedures in the examination of imported raw materials so the process takes less than seven days.

Additionally, duty on imported drugs would be imposed at a rate of Rp 5,000 to the U.S. dollar so selling prices could be lower.

Moeloek said, in an effort to reduce dependence on drugs whose content is 90 percent imported, the government would ask 224 pharmaceutical companies across the country to set aside part of their marketing budgets to finance research on drug raw materials.

"Indonesia has about 40,000 species of plants, some 1,000 of which are already used as raw materials for traditional drugs, and therefore, research could accelerate the discovery of more drug raw materials here," he said. (swe)