"Fast medicine, slow guidance: How the halal framework is catching up"

The mainstream pharmaceutical pipeline is moving fast toward biologics -  complex, living-system-derived treatments that use biological materials in different ways from anything the halal regulatory framework was built to assess. In essence, the pharmaceutical industry is moving faster than the fatwa development process.
 

We speak with Adam Reza Ganjara who serves as the general manager for pharma, petrochemicals, and bioprocess at Indonesia's PT Elo Karsa Utama on how best to convene science, supply chain, and regulatory compliance and Indonesia's role in global halal compliance. 

Is Indonesia a reference point for halal compliance globally?

Indonesia has one of the strictest halal regulatory environment. The regulatory demands here - especially since BPJPH (Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency) took over halal certification — mean that operations across Indonesia have had to develop a level of halal readiness that sites elsewhere simply aren't required to match yet.

So, when global colleagues are trying to understand what rigorous halal compliance looks like in practice — what the documentation requires, what the audit process involves, what ingredient traceability means at a formulation level — Indonesia is the internal reference. It's not a comfortable position, but it does mean we're building something that has global relevance.

How intense is the regulatory presence in present Indonesia?

The halal industry wants to comply but I don't think compliance is the problem. The problem is that the rules keep changing. Requirements around the recognition of foreign halal certification bodies have shifted multiple times. Companies that have invested in getting certified through a specific international body have found those certifications questioned or invalidated because the regulatory recognition changed underneath them.

And there's rarely enough transition time. A requirement changes, and companies are expected to adapt immediately, even if their certification cycle runs on a two- or three-year timeline. That mismatch creates real operational strain.

Is this a structural or communication challenge?

Probably both, in different proportions depending on the issue.

Some of it is institutional. The ambition of what Indonesia is trying to do with halal certification across food, pharma, cosmetics, supply chains is genuinely unprecedented in scale. So, there will be growing pains.