As the death toll climbed to 159 and total cases rose to 304 nationwide on Monday, more evidence has emerged that toxic chemicals were the main culprits.
Instead of taking a more proactive approach in periodically examining drugs on shelves, the agency relies heavily on self-assessment by drug manufacturers, leaving a loophole in the supervision over pharmaceutical companies, a consumer group and experts said. Dr Windhu Purnomo, a public health expert from Airlangga University in Surabaya, told The Straits Times that the distribution of a number of unsafe drugs tainted by impurities reveals a lack of supervision by BPOM.
That was also a point underlined by the Indonesian Ombudsman, which is tasked with overseeing the implementation of public services, when making the case for BPOM’s failure to halt the distribution of hazardous drugs. Defending the absence of routine checks, BPOM chief Penny Lukito pointed out that pharmaceutical companies have the responsibility of assessing the level of impurities in their products, and up to now, there is no international standard that serves as a reference to check the content of EG and DEG in the drugs.