Indonesia warned about OTC sales of prescription drugs

The Indonesian government should do more to monitor the sale and distribution of prescription drugs because of the over-the-counter availability of these products at local markets, according to Marius Widjajarta, head of the Indonesian Health Consumer Empowerment Foundation. Almost no monitoring by the country's Food and Drug Control Agency, the BPOM, exists, he told the Jakarta Post, noting that the agency only warned the public of the possible harm of buying these products without a prescription and did not do anything to stop their illegal sale and distribution.

In response, the BPOM issued a public warning stating that drugs which need a prescription were being sold in some stores as OTCs and that some of these were being marketed past their expiration dates or repackaged to change the date.

The consumer activist group derided the move, saying that the Agency should go beyond issuing warnings and look at the root of the problem. The BPOM needs to take action against retailers which sold drugs illegally, it said, adding that drugmakers should report their production quotas and where they distributed their drugs.