The Acting Director General of Pharmaceutical Chemical and Textile Industries of the Ministry of Industry Ignatius Warsito considers that an environmentally friendly pharmaceutical industry is important to follow up. "It's very important to talk about the concept of green pharmacy. From an industrial perspective, most of today's pharmaceutical products are developed from basic chemicals. Transformation to make them green or environmentally friendly is very important for sustainability," said Warsito in Jakarta, Tuesday, while attending a group session. T20 task entitled "Green Pharmacy's Role in Supporting Global Health Architecture" virtually.
Warsito appreciated the green pharmacy concept presented by Dexa Group Biomolecular Pharmacologist Raymond Tjandrawinata by mentioning that green pharmacy is not only a transition from chemical to herbal, but also makes medicinal ingredients return to nature.
"Frankly, based on chemical and herbal medicines, our industry wants to create a road map for Indonesia. It is important for all parties from upstream to downstream to collaborate with environmental, social and economic aspects," said Warsito.
For that, continued Warsito, green pharmacy is a smart concept, where in the second, third year, Indonesia must make an action plan to make it happen.
"So, we formulate an action plan, about what, where and how we can accelerate this to navigate the current global dynamics," said Warsito.
Meanwhile, Raymond explained that when talking about green pharmacy, what needs to be seen is the environmental and ecological perspective.
"Chemical drugs are very valuable to us, even as mentioned in many studies it prolongs life, lowers mortality, increases patient survival. So the huge impact of chemical products is there. What we are doing now is actually drug-based. -chemical drugs," said Ramond.
Now, continued Raymond, it is important to remember that there are also some effects of chemical drugs. For example, starting from research and development of manufacturing, distribution, consumption, even to waste management, where these types of drugs have several impacts on the environment.
One of them, added Raymond, there are several studies that found the absorption of drugs in food. Second, chemical drug products can be in drinking water due to leaching into ground water.
"So how can we manage wastewater properly, so that human exposure to drugs can be lower. That's the idea of how drugs can actually not only increase human survival but also reduce human exposure to sewage," said Raymond.
If, Raymond said that when talking about green pharmacies in large quantities, the producers, companies, patients and doctors will benefit not only, but also the farmers who have the ability to plant in accordance with good agricultural practices.
"After the raw materials are produced, we process them with GMP and use them into the national formulary and prescribe them to patients. We are grateful to green pharmacy which gives us a lot of hope in the future," concluded Raymond.
