We import 96 percent of the medicinal raw materials we needJakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged domestic pharmaceutical industries to strive for increased self-reliance in medicinal raw materials in order to strengthen domestic production and benefit the country`s 240 million population.
"We have discussed the need to increase our self-reliance in raw materials as we still import too many raw materials from friendly countries. We have to set a timeline for reducing the imports," he said after a coordination meeting on people`s welfare at the Ministry of Health here on Wednesday.
The President said efforts to reduce the domestic pharamaceutical industry's dependency on imported raw materials should be stepped up in line with the country`s health development strategy.
Earlier, the director general of pharmaceutical and health equipment industry development, Maura Linda Sitanggang, said Indonesia was still heavily dependent on foreign countries for pharmaceutical raw materials.
"We import 96 percent of the medicinal raw materials we need," she added.
"The government seeks cooperation with the private sector and academic institutions to produce raw materials in the country and reduce Indonesia`s dependence on foreign supplies," Maura said.
She expressed hope that the dependence could be reduced by at least 5 percent every year.
"One of the strategies to achieve this is by procuring raw materials from locally available resources, such as medicinal herbs," Maura pointed out.
She said domestically produced medicines were able to meet 90 percent of the nation`s requirements, adding that "the implementation of the National Social Security System will not have much impact on the availability of medicines because only 10% of those are imported".
Maura stated that the government already had enough buffer stock of medicinal raw materials to last 18 months.
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Editor: Suryanto
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