TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Merck continues mission to innovate in Indonesia’s healthcare landscape
The healthcare industry in Indonesia is expanding as the government is racing to provide quality health services across the archipelago.
Change Size
T
he healthcare industry in Indonesia is expanding as the government is racing to provide quality health services across the archipelago. While great strides have been made, the COVID-19 pandemic helped prove that the system is flawed and the country still has a long way to go.
Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and electronics. With a long presence in Indonesia, the company is eager to build a long-term partnership to improve the country’s healthcare. As a family-owned business with over 350 years of history, Merck has proven itself as a company that actively puts people above profit, and that includes its operations in Indonesia.
Being in the pharmaceutical sector, innovation is one of the pillars that drives sustainability. While the Indonesian government is prioritizing investment for economic recovery, Merck sees biopharmaceutical innovation as something that should be encouraged and incentivized, because at the end of the day, by improving the health of its people, the country will become more competitive as an economy.
“I am often asked, why do you have so much energy? That’s actually the purpose. Because through these past 26 years I have seen that I can contribute to help to make an impact on people’s lives. What motivates us is not selling more drugs but improving the health of people around the world. This is why we promote prevention and early diagnosis through disease awareness campaigns such as the RAISE Thyroid Program in Indonesia,” said Hong Chow, head of China and international healthcare at Merck. She oversees all markets outside of North America for Merck Healthcare as a member of the Healthcare Executive Committee.
Citing “As one for patients” to help create, improve and prolong lives as its business purpose, Merck is contributing to the health of over 90 million patients worldwide every year. The company is driven by four core specialties: fertility; neurology and immunology; cardiometabolic and endocrinology; and oncology.
Create
Regarding Merck’s portfolio, Chow revealed that the company was a market leader in hormone-based fertility, having supported the birth of over 5 million babies. They are the only company to offer recombinant versions of the three natural hormones needed to treat infertility, offering easy-to-use, ready-to-use injection devices for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
Continuous scientific advances are the basis for improving Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) outcomes for patients, as the company entered the field of fertility technology with the rapid change of digitalization and the need for innovation, using AI and robotics to handle embryos for IVF.
Improve
“There are chronic diseases which may not lead to death, such as diabetes, thyroid disorder and cardiovascular diseases, but they lead to life-threatening complications or disabilities such as in the area of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). And so, this is about improving life,” Chow said.
Merck has implemented digitalization to screen patients, emphasizing the importance of thyroid awareness and check-ups. Those who are identified as more high-risk will get a blood test. Chow revealed that in Indonesia this year, the hypothyroid disorder prevalence had been around 12.6 million and hyperthyroid disorder around 13.4 million. Meanwhile, the diagnosis and treatment rate was less than 2 percent in Indonesia while the rate was 70 percent in developed markets like Germany.
Merck has also been pursuing its goal of engaging with roughly 52,000 healthcare professionals through the RAISE Thyroid Program and will extend thyroid disorder screenings to 3 million high-risk adults across 7,000 healthcare facilities.
Prolonging life
“And then, [we hope] to prolong life, in [relation to] cancer. We are, for instance, active in the area of colorectal and head and neck cancer, and we will launch a new drug for bladder cancer soon in Indonesia. And as cancer patients’ survival rate in Asia is relatively low, it’s our purpose to prolong patients’ lives with our medicine,” Chow continued.
She stated three aspects Merck was trying to achieve regarding healthcare: go faster, go wider and go deeper. The first is to launch drugs in a shorter timeframe, within 18 months, compared to the dates the drugs are launched in the United States or Europe.
To go wider is to increase the availability of innovative medicines in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) by registering in more countries, particularly high-burden LMICs.
Thirdly, go deeper refers to established products. To be able to benefit more people, the company has implemented the access program to make drugs more affordable for patients who belong to lower income brackets.
Last but not least, Chow emphasized the need for innovation in order to bring life-saving drugs. While she admitted that it was a very large investment with a 10 percent probability of success, digitalization and investment was vital to ensure that the industry could move forward.
