Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin expressed firm belief that enhancing the quality of human resources in the biotechnology sector was paramount to improving public health services.
“(We need) the best Indonesian talents, who are able to use technology to utilize data and create innovations that can help improve public health,” Sadikin noted during the seminar titled “Encouraging the Progress of Health Biotechnology Education in Indonesia” here on Friday.
The minister said the development of biotechnology is influential in the world of health. According to Sadikin, biotechnology innovation has contributed to the development of drugs, therapeutic vaccines, and detection devices.
Meanwhile, he highlighted that vaccine development in the last decade was still being conducted conventionally, so the ministry encourages drug development based on biology in addition to chemistry.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the vaccine developments being conducted is the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine.
“During the pandemic, researchers have succeeded in developing a vaccine from pathogenic genetic information, which is the mRNA vaccine. Technological development also allows us to conduct 60 human DNA sequencings in just one day,” he stated.
He explained that human DNA sequencing can be conducted rapidly due to the small machines being used, thereby making it easy for researchers to conduct research anywhere and even in outer space.
On the same occasion, Sadikin expressed optimism that more training will be provided for academicians, especially in the biotechnology sector, to support health security.
He remarked that modern health devices would not be sufficient if human resources were not trained.
“I hope that academicians would continue to gain as much knowledge as possible and share them,” he affirmed.
Meanwhile, on Friday (October 7), Health Minister Sadikin, along with Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Head of the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) Penny K. Lukito, accompanied President Joko Widodo to inaugurate the biopharmaceutical factory of PT Etana that produces the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
Source: Antara News