Speaking at the commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) in Jakarta on Sunday (4/2/24,) Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s Health Minister, asked BPOM to improve its work in providing easy, quality, and affordable service for the community, according to reporting from Antara News.
“I entrust the BPOM and a state-owned Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) to provide health services for the public. Service for the public must be easy, quality, and affordable,” he said, adding that BPOM must improve medicine procurement in Indonesia to cut medicine disparity.
“We cannot lose the competition with Singapore and Malaysia. Do not let them have a cancer cure; we do not have it. Moreover, do not let rich countries have early access to vaccines, and we will not get them just because we cannot produce them,” he emphasized.
Antara News says that he said BPOM needs to increase its role in monitoring drug quality to ensure drug efficacy in Indonesia.
“We must have quality medicine just like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. We cannot have drugs available in those countries a year later,” Sadikin said.
Regarding affordable drug prices, he urged all administrative processes for drug procurement to be improved, say Antara News.
“I am grateful that the Indonesian people have the state-owned Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan). They can get free medicine. However, our middle and upper classes still have to go to Malaysia for cheaper treatment and medicine. We need to fix that,” he said.
Source: Antara News
