Demand for COVID-19 Drugs Rockets Twelvefold: Health Minister
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26 July 2021 16:55 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in a virtual press conference on Monday said the demand for COVID-19 therapeutic medicines had increased twelvefold since June 1. He assured the government was trying its best to meet this demand by conducting imports, increasing production capacity, and accelerating distribution.
He explained that preparations for domestic medicines production would take time. “It needs between four to six weeks to make the production capacity of our domestic medicines meet the twelvefold demand,” he said on June 26.
However, he assured that medicines such as Azithromycin, Oseltamivir, and Favipiravir would significantly enter the market starting August as the government had asked pharmaceutical firms to boost production of the aforementioned drugs.
Other COVID-19 therapeutic drugs that were not produced in Indonesia, such as Remdesivir, Actemra, and Gammara, would be imported.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin also warned the public to not hoard essential drugs needed by people undergoing COVID-19 self isolation.
Read: Health Minister Says Jakarta, Yogyakarta May Get Hit Hardest If COVID-19 Worsens
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