Pharmacies/Apotik and Obtaining Medications in Indonesia

Expat residents, worried about maintaining the health of their family during their stay in Indonesia, will need to purchase over-the-counter and prescription medications during their stay to overcome illness and to treat any ongoing medical conditions. Many international medications are readily available in Jakarta and to a lesser extent in other population centers.

Talk with your doctor before departure

If any family member requires prescribed medication, ask your doctor if you could obtain a supply of medication that will last until your next home leave in case Indonesian pharmacists do not carry the drugs required by your family. Take care to note the expiration date of the drugs before purchase. Tell your pharmacist that you intend to use them over a one-year period and make sure that the strength of the drugs will be maintained. If the medications that you need have a short shelf life, and they are not available in Indonesia, International SOS can obtain prescription medications from overseas within several days.

If your sponsoring company does not provide local medical insurance, find out from your insurance company if your pharmaceutical purchases abroad are covered by your insurance from home. Once you have been to Indonesia and know what is available, you will know what medications you must purchase during home leave trips in the future.

Bringing Medications from Home

If is okay to bring prescription medications from your home country to Indonesia, but you MUST obtain and bring with you either a doctor's letter outlining the need for and listing the meds and/or a copy of the original scripts/prescriptions. Best to bring both ! If you are asked about the medications by customs in Indonesia, you need to have these documents to prove that the meds are legally prescribed.

Additionally if you are transiting through Changi you will also need to apply for an authority to import the medications to Singapore..I know, you are just transiting but believe me this MUST be done. The Singapore Authorities are very fast and professional in issuing these authorities.

Local Pharmacies (apotik)

A limited number of foreign chain pharmacies can be found in most of the major cities in Indonesia and include Guardian and Century Health Care. These pharmacies are located in most major malls and shopping centers in Jakarta. They sell a wide range of imported and local prescription and over-the-counter medications and toiletries and have a pharmacist on staff to fill prescriptions and help customers with drug-related questions. Be advised that many pharmacists of them have limited English speaking abilities. If you are having problems communicating, write the name of the medication down and show it to the pharmacist as they may know it with an Indonesian pronunciation. If what you need is not available in one store they may be able to obtain it from another store and hold it for pickup, or they can call around and find out which store in their chain has the medication you need. In some cases they may be able to deliver the drugs to your home.

There are many privately owned local apotik (pharmacy) in Indonesia. One of the better chains is Apotik Melawai, headquartered in Jakarta. There are also several large government owned pharmacies which mostly sell drugs produced at government factories. Many local pharmacies sell generic medicines which are much cheaper. Ask for obat generik and compare the prices.

Pharmacies are also found in all hospitals and major medical clinics or group practices, but it is harder to get medications from these pharmacies without seeing a doctor in practice there first. Generally they will not fill prescriptions from outside sources.

Roadside vendors - In the evening on Jl. Roxy and Jl. Gajah Mada many roadside stalls open for business selling drugs at very reduced rates. The customers are normally poor people who can not afford to purchase drugs in apotik. However, in many cases the drugs are fake, from uncertain sources, of poor quality or the expiry date of the drugs has been erased or changed. It is not advised to buy from roadside vendors.

Obtaining medications from Abroad

It is possible to obtain drugs from abroad for expatriate patients' ongoing treatment. The amount that can be brought into Indonesia without too many problems is usually a 3-month supply. There are restrictions for controlled drugs; the list of these drugs varies slightly between countries.

A medication order from abroad is however, most likely to be more expensive than the purchase of a locally available drug, or its generic equivalent. Additionally to the price for the medicine, shipping cost and handling fees can add up to between US$200 and US$400 to the cost of the drugs.

An alternative is to speak to your treating physician in the US and ask for a prescription. A family member or friend may then collect the prescription and the drug, which can be hand carried by anybody from your company traveling to Indonesia, or be sent to you by courier service. Check with the various courier services on their policy for the shipment of drugs. Usually they require that a written copy of the prescription accompany the package. The amount of medicines to be shipped should only be a 3-month supply. An individual may agree to hand carry a larger amount, but may be held up at customs if it there is suspicion that this is not for his own consumption. If the person brings a copy of your prescription and an email/letter asking you to bring the medicine, this should help clear them through customs.

Some Additional Cautions

Irrespective of where you obtain your medication from, please double check before you leave that you have been prescribed the correct medication. If in doubt ask to have a look at the MIMS to confirm that you have been given the correct generic medication as it may be under a different trade name. If you are not sure, ask to speak to the doctor again or phone your medical advisor. Most pharmacies will not allow you to return medication once it has been dispensed and paid for.

Also make sure that you have explicit instructions from the pharmacist on how to take the medication and that you have been given the correct dose and that all medication is marked correctly and the dosage legible on the labels. Again, this may not always be clear and can lead to confusion and result in incorrect dosages being given and taken by the patient. Be particularly careful with medications given to your children and if in any doubt speak to a medical advisor or your doctor at home to confirm that what you have been given is correct.

It does sometimes happen in the best facilities that the incorrect medication and/or dose is given to the patient and this may differ from what you have been prescribed by the doctor or what your doctor may previously have prescribed for you in your home country.

Polypharmacy is also fairly common and you may end up receiving a script (prescription-resep) with five or six items on it for a simple ailment. The provision of vitamin supplements is also acceptable and prescribing habits of doctors may be different to what you are accustomed to at home. If you are not happy with what is being given to you, politely refuse the items that you deem unnecessary and take only those on the script that are really required to cure the illness or relieve the symptoms.

Local Drugs may use Different Names

If there are medications that you think you may need to take while you are here, bring a prescription from your doctor that lists both the generic (composition) and brand names and dosage as the medications may have a different names in Indonesia than in your home country. Even over the counter medications (for colds, flu, allery) may be sold under a different name than in your country. So bring the generic names of those medications as well so that you can ask the pharmacist for the medication by its chemical name.

Most apotik have a English-language directory (entitled IIMS or MIMS) which lists all the medications available in Indonesia, by brand name and manufacturer and by chemical name. You can often look through that with the apotiker (pharmacist) and determine local equivalents for drugs you are used to taking from home. If the drug isn't listed in the MIMS, then it probably isn't available in Indonesia!

Most prescription medications are sold for cheaper prices in Indonesia than overseas as local prices are calculated based on the local market's ability to pay. If the drug that you are asking for should be sold with a prescription, and you don't have one, you may be asked for your name and address so that the apotik can account for who they sold the medications to.

While it is possible in most apotik to ask for a drug and get it without a local prescription, there is a clear danger in self medication and doctors do not advise it. It is common for Indonesians to ask the pharmacist for a kopi resep (copy of the prescription) when they have a prescription filled. Then keep this copy and use it again in the event of an future occurrence of the same symptoms/illness.

Obtaining Medications in Remote Locations

If you are traveling to a remote location in Indonesia it can be VERY hard to get ANY type of medication due to extremely limited local resources. If you are planning on traveling outside major population centers or off the islands of Java or Bali it is advised to take a stock of basic medications with you as local clinic resources are extremely limited!

Many expat groups traveling through Eastern Indonesia, knowing of the shortage of basic medications, have donated basic medications to a local community health center (puskesmas) which they brought along from Jakarta.

Singapore Airport Pharmacy

If you are traveling through Singapore and leaving the country within 24 hours you can buy medications there without a prescription. Contact the pharmacy in advance to ensure they have what you need in stock, if it is something unusual. They will ask to see your ticket as proof that you are leaving Singapore.

You can also obtain medications without a prescription at the pharmacies in Singapore's Changi airport in the transit section (after you pass through immigration). Just show your boarding pass and ticket and you can buy any prescription medications they have in stock over the counter.

Terminal 2 Pharmacy Tel. is (65) 545-4622.

Our thanks to International SOS for their assistance in preparing this article.

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