Jakarta ( WNAM MONITORING): Indonesia’s Ministry of Industry is strengthening the quality and safety of nature-based medicines through collaboration with the Nature-Based Medicine Testing Laboratory Network (JLPOBA).
The network comprises a unit under the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) and four other laboratories.
Head of the Industrial Service Standardization and Policy Agency (BSKJI) of the ministry, Andi Rizaldi, stated here on Wednesday that the collaboration is carried out to optimize the development of nature-based medicines whose materials are sourced from Indonesia.
“Indonesia’s rich nature, with high diversity and thousands of species with the potential to be used as medicine materials, provides opportunities for the development of nature-based medicines,” he remarked.
Rizaldi explained that the cooperation is carried out by the ministry’s Center for Standardization and Service of Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Packaging Industries (BBSPJIKFK) and the National Center for Drug and Food Testing Development of the BPOM.
It also involves laboratories of the IPB University, Gadjah Mada University, as well as laboratories of private companies: PT Akurat Spekta Prima and PT Vicmalab Indonesia.
He further noted that the laboratory network was created with the objective of integrating the capabilities of nature-based medicine testing laboratories in Indonesia in supporting the supervision of products that are circulating, as well as serving as a platform for the exchange of information between testing laboratories.
Head of the BBSPJIKFK, Siti Rohmah Siregar, expressed her office’s readiness to support and play an active role in carrying out programs and activities of the laboratory network so that people’s confidence in using local medicines can increase.
“We hope to be able to give benefits to the development of the nature-based medicine industry in Indonesia, so that the products can be consistent in having good efficacy, safety, and quality,” she remarked.
The Ministry of Industry recorded that the nature-based medicine industry in Indonesia has produced 17 thousand nature-based medicines categorized as herbal medicines, 79 types of standardized herbal medicines, and 22 types of phytopharmaceuticals.
