Indonesian law aims for 1-stop shop for halal certification
16-Sep-15, BioWorld
Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, wants to lead the way in developing a simpler halal certification pathway for pharmaceutical and biomedical products. Some observers worry, however, that full implementation of laws that completely marry the needs of Muslim Sharia Law and those of traditional drug approval and certification pathways may prove impossible.
Image: Halal Certified Medicine
Still, Indonesia is trying with a series of new laws and regulations that consolidate and simplify existing rules. And the approach there may be one that regulators elsewhere, particularly in the Islamic countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), may seek to emulate.
Indonesia’s new law is bold and goes much further than regulations already in place in countries in the MENA region. By the time it is fully implemented in 2019, the law will require “products that enter, are distributed and are traded in Indonesia to be halal certified.”