Indonesia’s clinical trial ambitions

AS Indonesia sets its sight on becoming a thriving developed nation by 2045, one big question looms large: How do we safeguard our population from the “double burden” of deadly communicable and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that can threaten our productivity?

It is a valid concern since Indonesia is home to some of the highest incidences of tuberculosis (TB) and cardiovascular diseases in the world.

Health reform focused on prevention is the key driver to protect Indonesia’s workforce and the country’s population at large from these silent killers. Nonetheless, we need to be one step ahead of the game by providing the missing puzzle in our health reform, which has been well underway for almost four years under my tenure.

The missing piece is finally falling into place with the launch of the Indonesia Clinical Research Center (INA-CRC). Positioned to transform Indonesia as the regional preferred destination for clinical trials and health innovation, the INA-CRC will serve as a one-stop solution that provides a seamless process for domestic and international researchers and partners, including pharmaceutical companies, to conduct clinical trials in Indonesia.

The INA-CRC will play a pivotal role in securing higher-quality clinical trials across Indonesia, which will speed up greater access to a more affordable new and innovative health care, including medicine, health technology and therapeutics.

To kickstart the process, the INA-CRC will partner with Indonesia’s vertical hospitals, which are equipped to conduct clinical trials. Subsequently, the INA-CRC will partner with more than 3,000 hospitals across Indonesia.

By enabling more clinical trials in the country, we can speed up the availability of groundbreaking treatments that are safe and effective, particularly ones that match Indonesia’s needs.

Clinical trials facilitate rigorous and strict testing of new vaccines and treatments, ensuring pharmaceutical companies receive regulatory approval faster. As a result, patients can get faster access to the latest life-saving vaccines, therapeutics and medical devices.

Aside from greater access and options for preventive therapeutics, this time-saving approach can also drive down the cost of medical services.

The launch of the INA-CRC will bring Indonesia’s health reform full circle. Indeed, in the past four years the country has recorded significant progress in realising its national health transformation vision.

One of the examples is seen on the preventive healthcare front, through the primary healthcare pillar, as we revitalised more than 80,000 puskesmas (community health centres), 85,000 supporting puskesmas (pustu) and 300,000 posyandu (integrated health posts). This includes improving health service standards across puskesmas and posyandu, promoting free health screening services and adding cervical cancer (PCV), pneumonia, and rotavirus to public vaccination programmes. In addition, Indonesia is also aiming to boost its efforts to lower the mortality rate of double-burden diseases.

This task has become even more urgent as Indonesia strives to eliminate TB by 2030. For example, the Indonesian government has stepped up its TB surveillance efforts by up to 90 percent in 2024. But a more innovative approach to access the latest know-how is needed to curb TB incidence and mortality rates, and this is where the INA-CRC is expected to provide just that.

At the same time, we are also witnessing a rise in deaths from NCDs among younger and productive demographics. The burden of cardiovascular disease has surged considerably, with the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), an indicator for cardiovascular disease, rising by 5% from 2016 to 2021.

The same goes for other NCDs, such as diabetes and cancer, with a 17% increase and 8% increase, respectively, during the same period.

Having clinical trials in our backyard will boost our access to the latest know-how in medicine and health innovation that can address the “double burden” diseases challenges. According to the 2021 Global Access to New Medicine report, on average, Group of 20 countries launched 38% of the new and innovative medicine from 2012-2021.

In China, 24% of new and innovative medicine was introduced in the same period, compared to Indonesia with only 9%.

Indonesia is well-positioned to become an attractive clinical trials ground as we offer a large and diverse demographic, consisting of 280 million citizens from more than 1,300 ethnic groups.

This asset can provide a significant pool of data samples, which will enable researchers to conduct large-scale trials necessary to generate accurate and reliable data, particularly for our own population.

Moreover, getting access to new and innovative preventive care and treatment can reduce the risk of productivity loss posed by double burden diseases.

A report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) says that improving health by reducing incidence of six major disease categories that keep people out of work in the United Kingdom could raise the country’s GDP by an estimated 0.74% within five years.

As Indonesia welcomes the new government, the INA-CRC will lay the necessary groundwork for the country’s clinical trials ecosystem to thrive.

For Indonesia to make a significant leap in its health transformation journey, optimising the role of the INA-CRC is key to attract more clinical trials investment, a necessary intervention that can cement our path to becoming a developed nation. — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network