"It is important to talk about the concept of green pharmacy. From an industrial perspective, most of today's pharmaceutical products are developed from basic chemicals. Transformation to make them green or environmentally friendly is very important for sustainability," he said at a group session of the T20 task force entitled “Green Pharmacy's Role in Supporting Global Health Architecture,” which was followed online from Jakarta on Tuesday.
During the session, he lauded the green pharmacy concept presented by a biomolecular pharmacologist at Dexa Group, Raymond Tjandrawinata, saying that green pharmacy not only refers to a transition from chemical to herbal, but also returning to nature for the production of medicinal ingredients.
"Based on chemical and herbal medicines, our industry wants to create a road map for Indonesia. It is important for all parties, from upstream to downstream, to collaborate on environmental, social, and economic aspects," he added.
Green pharmacy is a smart concept and Indonesia will need to make an action plan to achieve the concept in the succeeding years, Warsito said.
"We must formulate an action plan and accelerate this to navigate the current global dynamics," he added.
Meanwhile, the environmental and ecological perspective needs to be looked into to achieve the target of green pharmacy, Tjandrawinata explained.
"Chemical drugs are very valuable to us, even as mentioned in many studies, they prolong life, lower mortality, and increase patient survival. So, chemical products bring a huge impact. What we are doing now is actually chemical drug based," he explained.
However, several studies have detected drugs in food, he said. Second, chemical drugs have also been detected in drinking water after leaching into groundwater.
“So, we must manage wastewater properly to reduce human exposure to drugs. That is the idea of how drugs can actually not only increase human survival but also reduce human exposure to sewage,” he added.
Besides producers, companies, patients, and doctors, farmers could also reap benefits from green pharmacies if they follow good agricultural practices while planting crops, Tjandrawinata said.
"After the raw material is produced, we process it with good manufacturing practices (GMP) and use it in the national formulary and prescribe it to patients. We are grateful for green pharmacy, which gives us a lot of hope in the future," he added.
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Translator: Sella Panduarsa G, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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