Indonesia Ecatalogue Strategy Registration

An important, new consideration to sales success in Indonesia is the eCatalogue listing. The system was established to bring transparency and prevent corruption in the government procurement in Indonesia, including public hospitals. Although initiated in 2013, it took all parties some time to understand the implication on sales. At first, companies seemed weary to participate in the voluntary system. Those that did, enjoyed very strong results and so now there is a rush for all to be listed.

Recent Structural Changes

On February 11th and 14th, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia implemented significant structural and procedural changes to the government procurement system known as ecatalogue as it applies to medical devices (reference announcement KN.01.04/3/630/2022). Previously, the  Indonesian Government Goods and Services Procurement Organization (LKPP) oversaw the ecatalogue and required manufacturers meet and justify their pricing prior to listing a product on the website. Under the new rules, oversight of the ecatalogue has been moved under the Ministry of Health and will not require negotiations. Going even further, the MOH will allow manufacturers to update their pricing daily with listing changes being automatically approved though the website may take up to 24 hours to update.

All the changes go a long way to increasing ; and will be welcomed by hospitals, healthcare works and medical device manufacturers as it speeds up the process and permits manufacturers to adjust prices independently.  Product categories specified for enrollment has been expanded to 1,482 types of medical devices and products registered under the previous national system will not need to re-enlist in the new system as the portal remains the same for now.

Once the Ministry of Health issues an Import License for a device, the License Holder can apply for an ecatalogue listing. There is not government application fee but implementing an optimal pricing strategy will be critical to successful public hospital sales.

The ecatalogue system also increases the importance of independent license holding in Indonesia because there is no room for regional -dealer margin under the price scheme.

Mechanism For Freezing Product Categories

On July 6, 2022, the Indonesia MOH issues new guidance outlining the process for freezing imported products on the ecatalogue. The idea is that is there are local manufacturers producing enough products domestically, the MOH will protect these manufacturers by barring foreign manufacturers from selling similar products on the ecatalogue.