Kementerian Perindustrian dan Fakultas Farmasi Kembangkan Pembuatan Parasetamol
Kementerian Perindustrian dan Fakultas Farmasi Kembangkan Pembuatan Parasetamol
Directorate General of Chemical, Textile, and Miscellaneous Industries in the Ministry of Industry builds cooperation with Faculty of Pharmacy Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in realizing self-sufficiency on medicine material and developing industries of paracetamol material. The cooperation on the Efficient and Economical Production of Paracetamol was signed by the Director of Upstream Chemical Industry, Ir. Muhammad Khayam, M.T., and Prof. Dr. Agung Endro Nugroho, M.Si., Apt., Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy UGM at Grand Zuri Hotel in Yogyakarta on Tuesday (11/4).
Based on the cooperation, they will conduct a research and production of p-aminophenol (PAF) as well as research and production of paracetamol by enzymatic methods using chemical ingredients and the other reactants.
Therefore, the Directorate General encourages the research on p-aminophenol (PAF) production method and paracetamol production using enzymatic and chemical methods on a laboratory scale.
Through this cooperation, the Directorate General will provide the chemical ingredients, reactants, and the other facilities. Moreover, they also give research funding support for PAF and paracetamol production on the laboratory scale.
Muhammad Khayam gave positive response upon the cooperation. This cooperation is expected to be able to implement the development of the other pharmaceutical materials.
“However, we have to focus on paracetamol issue due to the ratification of Industrial Constitution Number 3 in 2014 in which mandating the establishment of national industry,” said Khayam.
Muhammad Khayam said several existing regulations become the starting point for Ministry of Industry and the other ministries to keep encouraging industrial sector, particularly pharmaceutical industry. Those regulations include the Government Decree Number 14 and 15 in 2015 about Industrial Resources in which the government would ensure the availability of materials and energy.
“We all know that almost 95% of medicine material in Indonesia are provided from import. Therefore, we give our acknowledgment for Faculty of Pharmacy UGM which has an initiative to develop the alternative methods and materials,” he added.
The same statement was also delivered by Agung Endro Nugroho, Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy UGM. Since the Proclamation of Independence in 1945 until the recent days, Indonesia still depends on the imported medicine material.
“Indonesia has 140 study programs of Pharmacy but none of them can reduce the import of medicine material,” said Agung.
According to Agung Endro, this condition becomes a challenge in the future. Therefore, we need to innovate and think out of the box, particularly on the development of synthetic drug compounds.
“We have been consuming paracetamol for a long time, but we have yet to realize it as medicine material self-sufficiency. Therefore, this cooperation is a good strategy in which UGM gets support from the government through the Ministry of Industry and one of the pharmaceutical industries which is Kimia Farma. It also becomes a great spirit to develop the paracetamol industry,” he added.