Indonesia to Ask Merck for Local Production of Molnupiravir

Antiviral drug Molunipiravir. (Photo courtesy of Merck)

Jakarta. A high-level federal government group is checking out the United States for talks with pharmaceutical business Merck on the possibility of producing Molnupiravir, an antiviral treatment for Covid-19, in Indonesia.

The meeting is arranged for Wednesday in New York, Chief Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated in a video conference on Monday night.

I and the health minister are currently in the United States to have a conference with Merck relating to Molnupiravir, Luhut stated.

We want to exceed a simple purchaser. We anticipate them to have financial investment and production center in Indonesia and we are going to satisfy them in New York on Wednesday.

Merck is currently looking for emergency usage permission for Molnupiravir from the US Fda. The tablet is being heralded as a game-changer in the international battle against the pandemic after a Phase 3 trial revealed it could reduce the risk of severe symptoms and deaths by 50 percent.

Once we can couple vaccines with effective medication, we anticipate to accelerate the shift of the pandemic into an endemic, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated in the exact same press conference.

The government has actually been performing a medical trial of several monoclonal antibody drugs such as Mamlanivimab and Etesevimab and we are now exploring new and appealing antiviral drugs consisting of Molnupiravir from Merck, AT 527 being established by Roche and Atea Pharmaceuticals, and Proxalutamide from China s Kintor Pharmaceuticals, he added.

Budi said the government is appealing to those business for a medical trial in Indonesia.

That way we can quickly get knowledge if those drugs work against Covid-19 for our individuals, he stated.

Indonesia has managed to include the spread of the infection in current weeks, with day-to-day new cases plunging below the 1,000 mark and daily death toll falling under 100.

The overall variety of active cases stands at around 18,000 across the stretching archipelago, down dramatically from more than 500,000 active cases in the June-July period.