Govt launches reform of pharmaceutical industry

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)