Durian. Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan on Sept.26 called national pharmaceutical producers to accelerate the production of antiviral remdesivir in order to escalate recovery rate of covid-19 patients.
“It must be tried to immediately producing [antiviral] domestically. We will look for raw materials,” Pandjaitan said in a virtual meeting with related officials.
He said strategic plan for antiviral production should be based on emergency situation for national interests.
President Director of state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma Honesti Basyir said initially Indonesia cooperate with India for procurement while continues conducting domestic clinical tests.
Indonesia will import raw materials from China said Head of Indonesia’s Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) Penny Kusumastuti Lukito.
Chief of the Corona virus Disease Response Acceleration Task Force Doni Monardo in a virtual meeting with Minister Pandjaitan and related officials on Sept.24 had reported the arrival of remdesivir at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, but the imported antiviral was on hold at customs office, detik.com reported on Sept.25.
It’s not clear the importer country of the antiviral. Importer of the medicine was pharmaceutical firm Amanox Pharma Global.
Daniel Tjen, special staff at Indonesian Health Ministry said remdesivir is imported from India, viva.co.id reported on Sept. 25.
