inp.polri.go.id - Jakarta. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stressed the need for transparency in medical price determination to identify the cause of expensive medicine in Indonesia and immediately look for a solution.

"The price of medicine in one hospital can be very different from other hospitals in the country," said the Minister of Health.

He explained that transparency needs to be applied to all types of medicine, both branded generics and innovative medicines. Minister Budi revealed that the price of medicine not covered by BPJS Kesehatan can be three to four times more expensive compared to neighboring countries.

Minister Budi says there are several factors causing the hiking of medicine prices, such as marketing and distribution costs. Through transparency, these problems can be identified and addressed.

"We need to maintain a balance between drug efficacy and business profits so that the health service industry can be sustainable," explained the Minister of Health.

To that end, the government has taken a number of steps, such as drug price negotiations and the implementation of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to monitor drug innovations created.

He also highlighted the efforts of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) in accelerating the drug certification process so that innovations in the health service sector can be accessed more quickly by the public. The Minister of Health hopes that BPOM will continue to improve its performance in the process of providing certification and distribution permits for innovative drugs.

On the same occasion, Head of BPOM Taruna Ikrar revealed that his institution has accelerated the drug certification process from the original 300 working days to only 90 working days.

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