Through a statement on Friday, Andlusia noted that inadequacy of the medical device upstream industry resulted in limited availability of domestic raw materials.
Moreover, the ecosystem for investment in the medical device business had yet to be formed.
"The medical device trial laboratory is limited," she remarked.
Meanwhile, Health Minister's Special Staff in the Medicine Industry and Medical Device Resilience Department, Laksono Trisnantoro, outlined several reasons behind the people and health service providers preferring to purchase imported medical devices rather than local ones.
The first reason is the lack of campaigns that focus on purchasing Indonesian medical devices.
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Several doctors are of the view that the quality of domestic devices is poor, though not all of them, he noted.
"Hence, we need to promote the campaign to buy Indonesian medical device products specifically targeting doctors as health service providers," he stated.
Doctors' brand perception of domestic medical devices is important since patients tend to follow their recommendation, he remarked.
Health Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) Charles Honoris affirmed that Indonesia should take a cue from other nations that have already achieved medical device independence, such as China and Taiwan.
These nations implement two general strategies: opening the marketing channel and forming a medical device ecosystem.
"These nations realized their independence through a strong commitment to purchasing domestic medical devices as much as possible while still maintaining the aspects of security, quality, and availability," he stated.
By opening the marketing channel, the national medical device ecosystem will be formed, he added during the "Why Indonesia's Medical Device not yet Independent?" online discussion on Friday.
"Producers for components, raw materials, trial facilities, and others will also be formed in conjunction with the rise of the market's demand for domestic medical devices," he elaborated.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Suharto
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