The ambition was expressed on Tuesday when state-owned pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma launched its rapid test strips, a device made of paper that helps doctors quickly identify illnesses through blood or urine.

On Tuesday, the company started distributing test strips for Hepatitis B and pregnancy at its outlets. It aims to make similar test products such as for malaria, dengue fever and syphilis.

“I am very proud of these findings,” Nila said at the launch in Denpasar, Bali. “But let’s push for more [innovations], especially for diseases like dengue fever and malaria that are a national concern.”

She also boasted about state-owned vaccine producer Bio Farma’s biosimilar drugs — a generic medical product for breast cancer patients set for release in 2019. Bio Farma will sell the generics for Rp 7.5 million (US$531), while its Swiss-made counterpart costs Rp 25 million.

The product will help mitigate the impact of the ministry’s controversial decision to remove coverage of breast cancer drug trastuzumab from the list of medicines covered under the national health insurance program.

Nila further claimed Indonesia had exported hospital beds to Africa, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, with Bio Farma said to have earned $71.6 million from its exports to African countries in 2018.

Most doctors in Indonesia, she added, use locally made surgical masks and clothing, as well as syringe threads and knee braces.

Her claims, however, contradicted the latest report from the ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency. According to the report, 90 percent of materials in the nation’s pharmaceutical industry were imported as of October last year, especially chemicals. The agency cited difficulties in producing materials at home.

Nila added that the ministry imported vaccines for rabies as the products were unprofitable as demand was low. Yet, she also admitted in a press conference on Wednesday that the country had previously run out of stock for the vaccines after cases of rabies rose earlier this year in places like Bali and Manado in North Sulawesi.

Such outbreaks were enough to motivate the government to produce more homemade medications, the president of the Indonesian chapter of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics Outcome Research, Ahmad Fuad Afdhal, said on Wednesday.

While acknowledging that importing materials for medical products was necessary, Ahmad argued the country should at least produce basic chemical ingredients for over-the-counter medicines like paracetamol.

The problem, he said, was that the ministry’s policies on medicine were ever-changing as ministers were replaced in each administration. He suggested the government come up with a long-term blueprint enlisting chemical products that it wants to produce domestically every five years.

Through the blueprint, he explained that gradual production of homemade chemicals could minimize the country’s economic burden, as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s universal healthcare program lead to a surge in imports for raw materials while suffering a deficit that peaked at Rp 16.5 trillion because of unpaid premiums.

The plan could be enforced through a specific regulation, he added. Currently, a 2016 presidential instruction on the acceleration of the development of the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry stipulates for fiscal incentives and calls for the Investment Coordinating Board to create new policies in the sector.

“Still, the government should be realistic,” Fuad said. “We can only start talking about producing medicines when we can produce our own basic chemicals. Only then can we start deliberating on making our own materials and medicines,” Fuad said.

The pharmaceutical industry is lucrative as it saw 4.46 percent growth last year while contributing 2.78 percent to GDP, according to Trade Ministry data.

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