Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is accelerating the development of infectious disease drug candidates derived from the country’s biodiversity to strengthen national pharmaceutical resilience.
The initiative is being advanced through the International Symposium on Drug Discovery and Development held in Jakarta on Tuesday, bringing together researchers from Indonesia, Japan, and Malaysia to strengthen the scientific collaboration from compound discovery to preclinical safety evaluation.
“Indonesia is a megabiodiversity country with enormous potential to discover new therapeutic compounds from its rich biological resources. However, translating that potential into viable drug candidates remains a challenge that must be accelerated through research and development,” BRIN’s Deputy Head Amarulla Octavian said in a statement received here.
Infectious diseases remain a major global health challenge, he said, while Indonesia continues to face endemic diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and amebiasis.
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The risks are becoming more complex because of climate change, globalisation, and rising pathogen resistance. He said strengthening research capacity is also essential to support Indonesia’s pharmaceutical resilience, in line with the government’s strategic priorities.
Octavian noted Indonesia still imports more than 90 percent of the pharmaceutical raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients used by its domestic pharmaceutical industry.
“BRIN is committed to reduce the dependence by optimising Indonesia’s biodiversity through the development of health technologies and innovations that enhance national competitiveness while addressing public health challenges,” he said.
Drug development is a complex process that requires multidisciplinary collaboration across every stage, he explained, from compound discovery and lead optimisation to in vivo efficacy testing and comprehensive preclinical safety evaluation.
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“We need to translate local biodiversity and early-stage research into viable therapeutic candidates for endemic infectious diseases so they can strengthen national health resilience and contribute to addressing global health crises,” he added.
Meanwhile, a Senior Representative from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Indonesia Office, Hiroyuki Matsuda, said infectious diseases remain among the world’s greatest public health challenges, while growing drug resistance has made the development of new medicines increasingly urgent.
Matsuda said drug discovery requires close interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge-sharing partnerships rather than the efforts of a single researcher or institution.
“We hope this symposium will strengthen research networks, especially for young researchers, and generate new collaborations that support the development of life-saving medicines,” Matsuda noted.
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Translator: Sean Filo M, Martha Herlinawati Simanjuntak
Editor: Fransiska Ninditya
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